Historic bridge remains found during build in Blenheim

Thursday, 23 May 2019

A 150-year-old bridge pile and some century-old bottles have been discovered beneath a construction site in Blenheim.

Pieces of Blenheim's early history have been unearthed by workers constructing a new double-lane bridge at the northern edge of the town.

The accidental discovery of a wooden bridge pile and century-old bottles has surprised workers at the Ōpaoa River site, where a bridge is being built to replace the current 102-year-old crossing.

Workers found the old wooden pile while driving piles into the ground in March. The pile hit the wood and sliced part of it off.

Blenheim New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) senior project manager Andrew Adams said the pile was believed to have supported the original Ōpaoa Bridge, built in 1868.

Blenheim New Zealand Transport Agency senior project manager Andrew Adams stands over the wooden bridge pile, thought to be from an 1868 structure.

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An archaeologist will investigate how old the pile is, and what wood it's made from.

The find had caused minimal disruption to the project and would not delay its completion date, on track for mid-2020, he said.

The 'old bit of timber', thought to be hardwood, was recovered by workers and placed under the old Ōpaoa Bridge, nicknamed the banana bridge, for temporary storage.

The old Ōpaoa Bridge will be left for cyclists and pedestrians.

'An archeologist has been in to take a sample of the wood to identify what type of wood it is … and how old it is,' Adams said.

He expected the pile would date back to the 1800s.

Native trees could be planted along either side of the highway.

Bottles from the past two centuries were also recovered from the river at the bridge site. Adams thought some of the bottles dated from the early 1800s, and others were from the 1900s. He believed they came from passers-by throwing their empty bottles into the river.

The bottles had been washed, cleaned, and passed onto an archeologist. Both the wooden pile and bottles were earmarked for Brayshaw Park once testing was completed.

A mock-up of the new two-lane bridge with the old 'banana' bridge to the left as drivers approach from Picton.

The finds had been reported to Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (HNZ) and iwi. They had also been catalogued by NZTA.

The new $21 million bridge was proposed after an investigation carried out by NZTA in 2015. The existing HNZ category one-listed bridge was deemed too narrow for some vehicles, vulnerable in an earthquake and susceptible to flood damage.

Downer project manager Steve Ricketts said construction was expected to have little impact on Grove Rd, as stop-go traffic management would only occur when it couldn't be avoided.

The new bridge would be 10 meters wide, double-laned and 'all concrete', with 150 millimetres in movement allowed, he said.

Once completed, a landscape plan would be carried out to beautify the area and create an attractive gateway to Blenheim.

Officials from NZTA and the Marlborough District Council met with Rangitāne, Ngāti Rārua and Ngāti Toa in April to discuss potential beautification designs. A flax theme was suggested.

It was suggested harakeke/flax and other native plants be placed on either side of the highway, alongside a welcoming wall.

The wall could include the Māori name for Blenheim, Te Waiharakeke, and a weaving concept. The same concept was also proposed for the internal concrete barriers of the new bridge.

The old bridge would be kept for cyclists and pedestrians to use.