Competition! – Bruder competition

5 MinutesBy NZ Trucking magazineJune 15, 2016

If it wasn‘t for the four bridges

The trouble is the four bridges. They play on my mind constantly, steering my thinking in the direction of cynicism. They ruin the whole health and safety thing for me. 

The bridges I refer to are the Te Mana Stream bridge on SH2 at Katikati, the two Mangawhero Stream bridges, on SH24 and SH27 near Matamata, and the Ngutuwera Stream bridge on SH1 at Lichfield. Lets look at them from the point of view of location, time and cost. 

Location – these narrow death traps aren‘t tucked away on the East Cape; three of them are in the Waikato, statistically one of the most dangerous places you can drive a vehicle in the country, and the other, the Te Mana Stream bridge, is on the treacherous SH2 between Katikati and Te Puna. 

Timing – their inadequacy is not the result of a recent upturn in regional growth; they ‘ve been appallingly inadequate for at least 40 years that I‘m personally aware of. Even with the arrival and expansion of Fonterra Lichfield right on the approaches to one – still nothing! Cost – the longest of these bridges is probably no more than 30m. When we consider what ‘s being spent at Waterview or on the Waikato Expressway, the replacement cost of these four bridges would be about the same as the smoko room biscuit bill over the life of those other two projects. Any argument citing budgetary constraints is simply ‘BS‘. Authorities could have replaced one a decade! Some bureaucrat who‘s never had a heart-stopping moment with a camper van or sub-standard truck driver on any of them will tell us how the approaches on the bridges in question have been improved (by improved they mean increasing the approach speed of lunatics), and guard railings have been put in place (meaning making them even narrower, eliminating anything but a head-on crash). But in this day and age of ‘getting everyone home safely‘, ‘hazard identification‘ and ‘eliminating risk‘, can you blame me if the presence of these four bridges in the country‘s heaviest truck traffic corridors for more than half a century induces even a modicum of cynicism. 

– Kiwi Trucker. 

Competition

Primary school kids only this month Okay kids – your turn again. How well do all you junior truckers ‘know your turf ‘? Have a look at the pictures and see if you can tell us where all three bridges are. 

The winner will receive the MAN TGA rugged Tip Truck model in the picture. It ‘s a real beauty! Entry is simple Submit your answers via email to editor@nztrucking.co.nz or send a message to us on the New Zealand Trucking magazine Facebook page. 

Huge thanks must always go to Stewart Sales & Service Ltd for providing the prize in the monthly competition. Please make sure you support them when you‘re on the hunt for a ‘pressie‘. 

Good luck everyone and remember, you have to be in to win! The competition opens on June 15 2016 and runs until July 15 2016. 
The winner will be announced on our Facebook page on July 16 2016. 

Conditions 
• All three bridges must be correctly located. 
• The editor reserves the right to withhold any entry deemed to have content not suitable for general viewing. 
• Photos of accidents and misfortune will not be included. 
• All entries must be okay to be posted up on the NZ Trucking magazine Facebook page. 
• The judge‘s decision will be final.

 

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