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Puhinui Stream bridge underway
The first of four bridges for the Puhinui Stream walk is nearly finished. Working over two Saturdays March 5 and 12 under team leader John Smith, the staunch team of Bill Cross, Alan Johnson and Bruce Ringer, and the occasional team of Warren Judd, Miriam Beatson and Geoff Chapple, have almost completed a 15-metre span across a Puhinui Stream tributary just south of Auckland International Airport.
The bridge is designed to take 4WD loadings. Puhinui Stream is part of Te Araroa's route through Manukau City. It's a walkway, but the 4WD ute will deliver thousands of native seedlings to planting parties en route. John Smith has planned another three pedestrian-and bicycle-only bridges, two boardwalks across wetlands, and has taken charge of the planting.
Standing l to r: John Smith, Miriam Beatson, Bill Cross. Seated: Bruce Ringer (left) and Alan Johnson.
Manukau City Council's Duncan White is currently negotiating purchase of a 450-metre strip of land to complete the public right of way along the stream bank. The path will be 12 kilometres long, from the airport, past the Manukau City Centre to Totara Park. Says John Smith, an engineer who at 74 has only just retired and who has headed the Puhinui Stream project from the start: "Its a unique opportunity to re-create a substantial lowland forest. It might not happen in my lifetime, but you've got to start these things."
