News and media
Smith's new span
Tamaki Ki Raro Trust students built the footbridge ramps and handrails. From left: Aisa Lavea, Mike Jenkins, and Eruera Howard.
Credit: Catherine Toli, Manukau Courier
Te Araroa volunteer engineer John Smith and students from the Tamaki Ki Raro Trust have now bridged the Puhinui Stream at Aerovista Place - part of the 12 km Puhinui Stream route through Manukau City.
John Smith and Ross Murray of the Papatoetoe Historical Society joined forces with Manukau City Council last year to save the historic old Papatoetoe Railway overbridge (see 'Reincarnated !' story in the news index, April 2005). Smith and volunteers, Bill Cross, Alan Johnson and Bruce Ringer, then put new foundations in place, and Manukau Council hired a crane to swing the old bridge into its new position. Over the past month, Smith and the Tamaki Ki Raro Trust conservation students built the ramps and handrails either side.
Frame Group - an engineering company specialising in parks and recreation - has now completed a feasibility report on the entire 12-km length of the new walkway. When finished it will complete nearly half of Te Araroa through the city. Manukau City Council is negotiating purchase of a strip of private land to complete legal access up the stream, but another 8 km of track has still to be constructed.
