Blessing for new $8 million bridge on SH43
A blessing ceremony was held yesterday to mark the completion of a new $8 million, two-lane bridge over the Kahouri Stream on SH43, near Stratford.
It replaces a concrete single lane bridge and straightens a difficult “dog-leg” in the highway opposite the town’s Kopuatama Cemetery.
The new bridge is part of a $30m package for SH43 that included the sealing of the Tāngarākau Gorge, a culvert replacement and other work.
It will be open for traffic in two or three weeks, but a small gathering of people clad in hi-viz vests got to walk across the new structure as part of the blessing led by kaumātua from Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāti Maru yesterday morning.
Anaru Marshall, chief executive of Te Kāhui Maru Trust, said the bridge was on a significant site where an ancestor, Ruaputahanga, stopped on her journey back to Taranaki from the Waikato.
“There has been a lot of history on these roads going back four or five centuries,” he said.
Artwork by Taranaki sculptor Rangi Kipa featured in the concrete on the walls of the bridge and he was also creating five different works that would tell stories from the past along the highway between Stratford and Otunui.
“There’s a lot of history and culture to this road, and we’re keen to explore that and make sure the stories are told,” Stratford District mayor Neil Volzke said.
He was thrilled to see the bridge open, and the sealing of the road at the Tāngarākau Gorge.
“I’m one of a succession of mayors who have all taken our turn lobbying for improvements to this road,” he said.
Taranaki Regional Council chairperson Charlotte Littlewood said the bridge would welcome visitors to Taranaki as well as keep travellers safe.
“We have done all this development at New Plymouth Airport, work to welcome people. This bridge is part of that, part of wider improvements,” she said.
Waka Kotahi principal project manager Chris Nally praised the work of the Whanganui-based contractors, Emmetts Civil Construction, who took eight months to build the bridge.
It was an important part of the development work, which aimed to build resilience, improve safety, support economic development and connect communities along the highway, he said.
The current bridge, built in 1908, was structurally sound and would be left for people to walk and cycle across.