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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Scenic Sunday: Mangere Bridge



This is the third Mangere bridge. You can see the first which is now used by recreational fishermen. Thirty years ago, when I came to New Zealand, the National Government under Rob Muldoon was building the second bridge. There was labour unrest. They eventually built the bridge.

Now they are building another. Well, they are not really building, according to the engineers' definition. The Mangere Bridge Widening will not widen the existing bridge but duplicate the existing one to the north east. This means they use a similar design and height and build it alongside the present Mangere Bridge. This duplication is the most cost effective mainly due to integration with the existing motorway.

Many people are angry that the duplication does not include provision for rail, for a direct rail connection from Onehunga and the proposed Southdown rail network to Auckland Airport. So it is the saga of the Mangere Bridge again.

This bridge leads to the Auckland International and domestic airports. We must have a lot of air passengers.

I took this photo from the road side just before I walked a very new cycle and walking boardwalk. This has nostalgic reasons for me as I remember my flatmate A who was pro Muldoon proclaiming all the workers as communists.

http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/

1 comment:

Baruch said...

I must say, I have never seen the Mangere Bridge from this angle