Claudelands Bridge
| Claudelands Bridge | |
|---|---|
Claudelands rail and road bridges.
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| Coordinates | 37°47′04″S 175°17′00″E / 37.784418°S 175.283432°ECoordinates: 37°47′04″S 175°17′00″E / 37.784418°S 175.283432°E |
| Carries | 2 lanes of Claudelands Rd |
| Crosses | Waikato River |
| Locale | Hamilton, New Zealand |
| Maintained by | Hamilton City Council |
| Preceded by | Victoria Bridge, Hamilton |
| Followed by | Whitiora Bridge |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Warren truss |
| Material | Steel |
| Total length | 436 feet (133 m) |
| Height | 103 feet (31 m) river bed to road |
| Longest span | 132 feet (40 m) |
| No. of spans | 5 |
| Piers in water | 2 x 3 (until 1906 2 x 2) |
| Clearance below | 82 feet (25 m) |
| History | |
| Designer | Office of John Blackett |
| Construction start | 1880 |
| Opened | 1883 rail bridge, converted to road 1968 |
| Statistics | |
| Daily traffic | 11,000 |
| Designated | 5 September 1985 |
| Reference no. | 4201 |
Claudelands Bridge is a dual-lane truss road bridge over the Waikato River, joining Claudelands with Hamilton Central. In 1968 it was converted from the old railway bridge, which had been completed about the end of July 1883. The road bridge was given a Category 2 listing in 1985.
Around 11,000 vehicles a day use the bridge. The bridge is the second busiest CBD route for cyclists, with 135 in peak hours in 2009 and a rising trend. Bus routes 14 and 15 cross the bridge.
A new railway bridge, opened on 19 September 1964, a few metres downstream, replaced the old with a 7-span, 143 m (469 ft) pre-stressed concrete box girder bridge. The spans are supported by reinforced concrete piers, resting on in-situ cast piles. The bridge, built by Wilkinson and Davies Construction Co Ltd (involved in a 1959 contract law case and deregistered in 1967), is about 20 ft (6.1 m) lower than the road bridge, being 18 m (59 ft) above the normal river level. It was the first bridge in the country to be stressed with a 100-ton Freyssinet cable.
The bridge was designed in 1880 and the £5,519 contract let on 3 November 1881 to W. Sims. Although Sir George Grey turned the first sod of the railway extension at Claudelands in 1879, there seems to have been little publicity for that or the bridge, with only minimal mention in 1883. Ironwork for the bridge was reported as shipped in 1881.
Progress was very slow, so the contract was re-let to J. R. Stone on 18 September 1882 for £4,312 13s 6d, plus the £1,376 cost (the £5,688 total would now be equivalent to just under $1m) of the four cast cylinders from A & G Price. However, work stopped in November 1882, when it was realised the foundations were inadequate, requiring bracing of the cylinders and deepening of the foundations from 3 to 24 ft (7.3 m). The bridge was completed about the end of July 1883, but not used until the Hamilton-Morrinsville railway opened on 1 October 1884.
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Wikipedia