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NOW PLAYING • Poads Bridge
Poads Bridge
Work has been going on at Poads Bridge on Poads Rd, which runs into farmland beyond the Ōhau River, from Gladstone Rd.
The bridge has been there for a few years and consists of a section for vehicle traffic and a section for water pipes. Trampers use the bridge as well as cyclists and local residents and farmers.
Kevin Peel, group manager Infrastructure Operations at Horowhenua District Council, said: "We are replacing the old bailey bridge by building a new concrete two span bridge next to the existing one.
Demolition of Poads Bridge in progress.
"The bailey bridge is being replaced as it is in poor condition and it was not cost-effective to maintain. The existing bridge has a 2000kg weight limit while the new bridge will enable it to be used by all road-legal vehicles.
"Various improvements were made to this supply over several decades until the initial treatment plant was established at its current location in 1964, with a new intake being installed in 1969 near the plant.
Carrying building material for w new bridge on Poads Rd across the Ohau River.
"The pipeline that was visible on the old pipe bridge, alongside the Poads Rd Bridge, runs up to the water tanks that still stand on the hill in Poads Rd. As such, the pipeline dates back to sometime before the construction of the new intake in 1969 and it has been out of service since that time."
Some locals remember the bridge from way back when the Poads and Adkins lived down Poads Rd. Robin Barrie, who has been a local accountant for 60 plus years, had the Poad family among his clients. He said he remembers there was also a swing bridge across the river, leading to the Poad homestead.
The Poads farmed on Poads Rd for several generations. Barrie said he reconnected with the Poads children Owen and Rosalie at a funeral last year.
Work has begun to lift the old water pipelines off their bridge across the Ohau River on Poads Rd.
"The Poads farm was the start of the track into the hills. They kept an eye on the trampers who were allowed to park on their farm. They had beef and sheep farm. Mrs Poad, who hailed from Takapau, was very hospitable and a dedicated member of the Presbyterian Church."
Ray Harvey remembers that hospitality.
"My grandfather was a house painter and in 1943 took me down there as he was painting Mr Poad's house," he said.
The memory stuck because Mrs Poad had a refrigerator and produced home-made icecream. "A real treat for a 9-year-old," he said.
The original Poads bridge, a swing bridge which was washed away in a flood in 1952, was a precarious crossing.
Owen Poad, who lived on the road from the age of 2 until he was about 21, remembers what life was like.
"We were the only family there, there were other farms there. The original bridge was a swing bridge and very narrow, just wide enough to allow an Austin 7 to cross over it."
In 1952 there was a big flood which washed away the bridge and part of the bank.
"My father was a dairy farmer who had to take his cream and cream cans across the bridge to the road so it could be picked up to go to the milk plant. After the flood he had to wheel the cans across the pipe bridge in a wheelbarrow.
The old swing bridge across the Ohau River connecting those working and living on Poads Rd to Gladstone Rd, under threat from the 1952 floods.
"I had to negotiate the mudflats in my way to school. In the end my parents bought a second car and parked it on the other side of the bridge so they could go into town more easily.
"Possibly for up to two years we had to make do before there was a new bridge and the council wanted help from the community building the bridge, which meant that my father spent a lot of time helping build the new bridge during that time.
"When I was young there were a lot of logging tracks in the bush and my grandfather was a bullock driver, who dragged logging trees out of the bush and my dad grew up helping him. I was 30 when we first got electricity.
The family car just fit onto the old swing bridge across the Ohau River to Poads Rd.
"We had a kerosene fridge and a generating plant. My mother provided a lot of hospitality to the trampers and became honorary members of the Waiopehu Tramping Club."
In the mid-60s the Poad farm was sold to the Bartholomews, who had a long local history as loggers and sawmillers.
One pylon is in place for the new Poads Bridge, where the pipe bridge used to be.
