The Wairoa River Bridge

Wairoa Bridge (Tauranga), circa 1905-1907. Postcard A.G. Series No. 105 C
Collection of Justine Neal

The precursor to the modern Wairoa section of State Highway 2, was a simple bridle track cut under the direction of Captain Turner, County Engineer and the Civil Commissioner in 1870. In April 1871 the track was enlarged by the local constabulary to ten feet wide and declared a government road in 1872, running from Tauranga to Waihi. The road finished down at the Wairoa River beside a landing reserve. From the landing reserve travellers used a ferry service operated by Ngati Kahu. By 1874, with travel over the Wairoa increasing, the Crown built a kauri timber bridge to replace the ferry crossing.

Wairoa Bridge, Tauranga, circa 1910-1912. Postcard attributed to Mary Humphreys
Collection of Justine Neal

The Bay of Plenty Times January 12th 1886 stated:

"The bridge over the Wairoa River on the Tauranga-Cambridge road was last week completed by our local contractor, Mr. J Brain. The bridge is 172 feet long, of three spans. The end spans being 52 feet each and the centre 66 feet. It is truss girded, built into the solid rock bed of the river. The bridge opens up the rich district of Kaimai, a large extent of very fertile soil, famed in days gone by as a wheat growing centre and will no doubt prove a great boon to the settlers and travelling public."

Wairoa Bridge, 24 Nov 1962. Colour positive slide by Robert Gale
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0005/20/1199

By 1912 the kauri bridge was in a state of advanced decay. The Public Works Department replaced the bridge in 1913 with a single lane concrete bridge built a few yards up river. Originally the replacement bridge was intended to be built in timber but with the steep rise in the price of timber it was decided that concrete was more prudent. The new bridge was built in a deeper but narrower part of the river. The road was also widened to accommodate the increasing amount of vehicle traffic and two balcony-shaped pedestrian refuges were built into the bridge as a safety consideration for the increasing foot traffic across the river.

The concrete bridge was opened for traffic in July 1916, the county council tore down the old bridge and sold it for farming material throughout the district. The new bridge was an impressive structure for its day but the harsh environmental conditions of the Wairoa River would, over the next fifty years, take its toll on the bridge. As early as 1918 severe scouring around the foundations, worsened by high annual flooding saw the new bridge slump in one section.

Repairs to Wairoa Bridge, 16 May 1963. Colour positive slide by Robert Gale
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0005/20/20

By the 1960s it was obvious that the bridge had served its time. It was never designed or constructed with modern traffic in mind and was also becoming increasingly dangerous for local pedestrians, particularly children on the bridge as well as people fishing from it. Despite increasing lobbying from local interest groups as well Tauranga’s Mayor and local councils the Ministry of Works and National Road Board were slow to act so the river took matters into its own hands.

A severe flood in 1962 caused serious damage to the bridge with the western portion slumping considerably in April/ May of 1963. One pier was reported to have moved two inches in one day making the bridge unsafe for traffic, particularly heavy vehicles. This resulted in weight and speed restrictions being placed on the bridge in order to avoid a serious accident. Heavy vehicles and buses could no longer cross the bridge, effectively cutting the region in half. A local news item reported on how New Zealand rail buses could no longer cross the bridge on the Tauranga to Auckland route. Instead passengers on these buses are conveyed to one end of the bridge and then are required to walk across it to board a bus at the other end.

The new and the old Wairoa Bridges, 30 Dec 1967. Colour positive slide by Robert Gale
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0005/20/1203

In May 1963 the Ministry of Works began extensive temporary repairs on the bridge to restore the main northern road link between Tauranga and Auckland. By early 1964 the Ministry of Works announced that a new bridge was to be constructed with a new site under investigation but it was not until May 1967 that the first pile of the bridge was driven into the riverbed. To the delight of the region’s motorists the new bridge was finally opened in February 1968. The bridge’s opening signalled the end of the old bridge, which in April 1968 was progressively carved up into blocks for removal. A report from the NZ Herald in March 1968 stated:

“The old single laned bridge across the Wairoa Stream which for many years has been a source of frustration for motorists entering or leaving Tauranga by the Waihi road, is to be demolished. It has been replaced by a two-way structure which has been in use for a few weeks. The single laned bridge, one of the oldest concrete bridges in Tauranga county, was built more than fifty years ago. There were often queues of people waiting to cross."

Wairoa Bridge, 11 Aug 1968. Colour positive slide by Robert Gale
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0005/20/1202

References
Wairoa Hapu and The Realignment of State Highway 2. Section 2.
Papers Past. Bay of Plenty Times 10 January 1936.
Tauranga 1882-1982. Edited by J. Bellamy.