Rakaia Bridge

The Canterbury Provincial Council decided in April 1864 to commence building the railway from Christchurch to Timaru. An engineer was engaged to undertake the design for the bridge over the Rakaia River and to proceed with construction immediately. Construction of the railway commenced, but there were problems with funding and the Rakaia Bridge was not started. By the time the line reached Selwyn in October 1867, from central Christchurch and just across the Selwyn River, the provincial government was so short of finances that construction was temporarily halted. The provincial government called for tenders for a road bridge over the Rakaia River and awarded the contract on 17 October 1869 to William White, who had earlier built a bridge over the Waimakariri River. White was to construct a timber bridge with 96 spans of each. Much of the timber was cut in Little River and barged across Lake Forsyth and Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora. Worked ceased in the following year when it was decided to make the bridge a combined one for both road and rail traffic. The bridge cost NZ£36,196, was wide, and long. The rail was put down in broad gauge, , as was the initial standard gauge in Canterbury. On this new deck, the rails were reduced to the New Zealand's uniform gauge of . Just before reconstruction was complete, a major flood washed out both end of the bridge. ==Current bridge==

, about to open the bridge In June 1931, the Railway Department informed the Main Highways Board that it would increase the charges for the Rakaia Bridge. This resulted in the Main Highways Board to start investigations for a new exclusive road bridge, which finished in March 1933. Some months later, negotiations were started for the Main Highways Board to buy the existing bridge for it to become an exclusive road bridge. Meanwhile, the Railway Department desired a new bridge as trains were getting heavier. One of the reasons for a new bridge was that the old one was considered too narrow. It regularly happened that two large vehicles would meet on the bridge and one had to back off the bridge again as they could not pass one another; not necessarily an easy or quick manoeuvre on a bridge about one mile long. On other occasions, traffic was stuck behind a flock of sheep for as much as an hour. The Main Highways Board proposed to recover some 12% of the construction cost from three adjacent counties: Ashburton, and Ellesmere. In the end, the bridge was paid for from the Main Highway Fund in its entirety and the counties were relieved of their annual contribution towards the upkeep of the bridge. ==References==