Cyclone Gabrielle: Kiwi ingenuity - pieces of washed-away bridge recycled for new footbridge

Charlie Menzies was using a dinghy to get to work in Dannevirke. Photo / Paul Taylor

The river won the first battle with the bridge, but some rural Kiwi ingenuity is winning the war.

The bridge that connects the small community on Rakaiatai Rd near Ormondville in Tararua was washed away during Cyclone Gabrielle.

It was forcing Charlie Menzies to use a dinghy to cross the river to get to work, but that was never going to be a good long-term solution.

Menzies, along with husband Hamish, also had to ferry contractors across the river when there was any work to be done at the farm.

Now, a further short-term solution has been found - cutting up a piece of the washed-away bridge and repurposing it as a footbridge.

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Menzies is delighted, but would still like a timeframe for a new bridge across the river.

A blessing was held at the site last week and construction began on a solution for temporary access.

The footbridge built to improve access for residents at the end of Rakaiatai Rd. Photo / Tararua District Council

A spokesperson from Tararua District Council said the temporary footbridge had been constructed using recycled beams salvaged from the old bridge.

The original estimate to build the temporary bridge was going to be around $160,000.

“By recycling parts of the old bridge, costs have been reduced significantly,” the spokesperson said.

Trees and vegetation were cleared to enable earthworks to be performed to divert the road and enable access, and now the focus would be on improving safety and installing handrails.

Menzies said she had observed some indecision around how to improve access, and it wasn’t until a digger driver suggested using a girder to create the footbridge that progress was made.

She said she was very appreciative of the digger driver’s initiative.

While a walking bridge was fine, it was still only a metre or so above the river, which could be problematic if there was a reasonable amount of rain.

The council spokesperson said further earthworks had been done to enable 4WD and tractor access for the residents, but Menzies said she was frustrated that the contractors seemed to be changing their ideas about what they were going to do about a ford.

“Whatever ford they put in, even if it’s 4WD, that’s fine, but you can only do it when the water level’s low. That seems to be something they really struggle with.

“It’s not just when you get a flood. When you get an inch of rain, the water level can come up half a metre or a metre, and then you’re not driving anything through the river.”

Menzies, who is assistant principal at Dannevirke High School, said she had been working through the week, and to be able to walk down and walk across without clambering into a dinghy was a “decided improvement”.

She said the school was really short-staffed and if she was needed at work and couldn’t get there, it would put tremendous pressure on her colleagues.

“Not to mention the kids miss out. It’s not just me that’s suffering if I can’t get there.”

The old bridge was washed away during the flooding.

There was still uncertainty over when a new bridge was going to be built.

“We’ll get there, but it would just be nice to have some timeframes,” Menzies said, adding that knowing when the new bridge would be built, or what had been decided would be done until then would be helpful.

“At least you can work around it.”