Source: Radio New Zealand
The bridge’s cabling failed and sagged into the river after strong winds on New Year’s Eve. Supplied / Horizons Regional Council
When strong New Year’s Eve winds broke the cabling on an historic bridge, its future came under a cloud.
Sitting above the flat lands surrounding State Highway 56 in southern Manawatū, the former Ōpiki toll bridge will now dramatically change shape, as this week its decaying cables come down.
This will leave only the landmark’s pylons still standing.
Time has taken its toll on a bridge that for nearly 50 years cost some loose change to cross – saving motorists a lengthy trip.
For the second time in just over two years, the ageing structure has sagged into the water below.
And this week regional council officials announced the fix – removing the cabling, meaning the old bridge becomes less recognisable.
No one’s crossed since shortly after it closed in 1969 and its decking was removed, but thousands of people drive past what remains every week.
Toll days recalled
Spanning the view from Clive Akers’ living room window, the concrete towers and cabling of the Ōpiki bridge dominate the skyline – it’s a view that’s about to change.
Originally build for the family flax business in 1918, that industry’s collapse meant it instead became a private toll bridge over the Manawatū River until its closure in 1969, when the current highway bridge was built.
“Oh yes, there was a toll keeper,” Akers said.
The position was similar to a lighthouse keeper, in that the worker would live onsite and almost always be on call.
The toll bridge linked Manawatū to Horowhenua until its closure in 1969. Supplied / Collections of Te Manawa Museums Trust, Palmerston North
This and other parts of the bridge’s history are detailed in the book Suspended Access, written by Akers’ mother Molly two decades ago.
Akers recalled how one toll keeper was rescued by boat when the surrounding area flooded. The area still floods regularly today, which often closes the highway.
The busiest days of the week were Saturdays, when there was horse racing on.
“I remember as a teenager, when [the toll keeper] had his day off and would go to town, myself and one of my brothers or sisters would go up there and be toll keepers for half a day,” Akers said.
“We were warned of a car coming – one side there was an air pipe. When the car tyre ran over it it rang a bell in the house.”
From the other side the toll keeper would hear a car rattle the bridge’s loose boards – because a suspension bridge moves, the wooden planks couldn’t be nailed down.
In later years it cost 10 cents a trip for vehicles under three tonnes.
At night there was a barrier arm to keep vehicles out – although if a motorist was insistent on getting through, the toll keeper could charge them triple, Akers said.
While locals were happy enough to contribute to the bridge’s upkeep in exchange for quicker trips between Palmerston North and Foxton, not everyone was as impressed.
“During the 1930s the minister of public works was horrified when he came through Ōpiki and he was charged a toll to cross this bridge.
“He said, ‘Nowhere in New Zealand should there be a toll bridge.’ He told the toll keeper, ‘I’m going to have a public bridge here in the next five years.’ That never happened.”
Instead, the arrangement of a private bridge spanning the river, with public roads either side, continued for three more decades.
Akers said he was relaxed about the cabling’s removal.
“Of course, there’s not so many people now who have actually got memories of going over the bridge.
“It closed in 1969. That’s over 50 years ago.”
Clive Akers’ family built the bridge for their flax business over 100 years ago. RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Tough breaks
One of the bridge’s cables, which are said to come from Waihi’s gold mines, failed in 2023 and fell into the river.
It was fixed the next year, paid for by Horizons Regional Council, which now owns the structure, but the same cable again broke on 31 December.
The bridge has a category 1 rating from Pouhere Taonga Heritage NZ and Historic Places Trust Manawatū Horowhenua chairwoman Cindy Lilburn said it was an icon.
It was significant as New Zealand’s first private toll bridge and, when built, the country’s longest suspension bridge – about 150 metres.
“It stands alone in what’s a very flat landscape and it has a certain sort of spookiness, which has been suggested for use in films, because it rises out of the mist in the morning.
“It is such a landmark.”
Lilburn said the trust had favoured a solution to ensure the bridge’s long-term survival.
“We’d like to at least have the opportunity to talk about a long-term plan.
“The reality is suspension bridges aren’t actually that difficult to build. It requires running cabling up and over, so there is the potential solution that you could put new cabling up and over and then clip the old cabling to that.”
But with the news this week that wouldn’t happen – at least any time soon – she said the trust was saddened.
This view has greeted State Highway 56 motorists for more than 55 years, but it will soon change. RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
The cables had contributed visually to the bridge’s status as a landmark.
“There’s a certain degree of elegance we’ve now lost,” she said.
Council general manager catchment operations Dr Jon Roygard told RNZ last week that officials were working through options to fix the latest break, while also considering a long-term solution.
Until something was done, the broken cabling remained a hazard, he said.
“It’s a stretch of the river where people can use it for jet boating or that sort of thing. I don’t think it’s a highly used area.
“We have put signs up. We really recommend caution in that area. In fact, we’d rather people weren’t in there and operating around it.”
This week, Roygard confirmed that the cabling, which was in poor condition, was coming down.
“The other cable, while it has not fallen, is in similar condition to the one currently in the river. We will remove this cable at the same time to avoid the possibility of it also falling,” he said.
“Removing both cables at the same time also helps to bring the cost of the works down.
“Doing one cable now and the other at a later date is significantly more expensive than removing both at the same time.”
He acknowledged the bridge’s history, but said the regional council also had obligations for navigational safety in the Manawatū River and for the use of public money.
Sections of the cabling would be gifted to the Historic Places Trust and the Akers family, Roygard said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
