Airlie Road Bridges
Main Trunk Line, Pukerua Bank. Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
New Zealand Railways DA 1453 with Scenic Daylight on the Plimmerton Bank January 1971. Photo: Chris Bradley.
The current bridge on Airlie Road is the third to cross the railway tracks. The first bridge was used for stock access by the Wall family who farmed large tracts of land both east and west of the line. “To get to Pukerua [in 1916] there was a narrow track up the valley at the north end of Karehana Bay, over the railway by a narrow bridge at the top end, and so followed the railway up to the station where there were a few cottages (railways) and the fishermen’s cottages along the high tide mark in the Bay.” B.H. Walton, April 1991.
In 1928 the first road between Pukerua Bay and Plimmerton was formed and this road went across the 1912 bridge. When the Main Trunk Line was double tracked in 1937 a new bridge was built. This bridge was a notable example of a Howe timber truss bridge. Howe truss bridges were designed in 1840 by William Howe, a construction contractor from Massachusetts. The design was very successful over many years because bridges of this type were relatively inexpensive and easy to build with few tools. The bridge was replaced in 2012 and timbers have been used for He Ara Pukerua signs and bollards.
The Airlie Road Howe timber truss bridge before it was replaced in 2012.
The road was called Pukerua Road until 1961 when it became Airlie Road. Airlie was the family seat in Scotland of Sir George Troup, NZ Railways architect, Wellington mayor and Plimmerton benefactor who farmed in the area.
