Pukerua Bay Overbridge

There is some irony in that while we enjoy less traffic through Pukerua Bay following the opening of Transmission Gully, Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata, a hundred years ago there was great anticipation that a road would soon bring traffic to Pukerua Bay.

The May 1923 meeting of the Hutt County Council received a letter from the Railways Department stating that a level crossing at Pukerua would not be permitted. The only options were a subway or an overbridge and the County would have to carry the estimated £600 cost. At this time Pukerua Bay was within the Hutt County Council’s area.

In September 1925 Charles Gray met with the Railway Board of Management in Wellington to discuss the possibility of a bridge over the railway at Pukerua Bay. At that time there was not even a road to Pukerua Bay. There was a railway crossing with gates near Charles Gray’s home known as “Gray’s Crossing” and gates just south of the station known as “Ames Crossing.” This was where pedestrians now cross the railway at Pukerua Bay Station.

In August 1928 a petition started by Roderick Mulhern and signed by 31 people was presented to the Hutt County Council asking for an overbridge at Pukerua Bay. The country engineer was asked to submit a report. The engineer’s report stating that construction of the bridge was desirable was presented to the October Council meeting. At the same meeting a deputation representing the Pukerua Bay Ratepayers’ Association brought a counter petition signed by 99 Pukerua Bay property owners. This petition considered the site for the bridge was unsuitable, that it would be an unnecessary expense and was not in the best interests of Pukerua Bay.

Around this time there were two factions in the Bay, one supporting the Pukerua Bay Ratepayers Association (later the Pukerua Bay Ratepayers and Householders’ Association) while the other faction started a rival group: the Pukerua Bay Progressive Association.

Charles Gray wrote to W.H. Field MP in July 1929 to point out that no vehicles were allowed across the railway as “Instructions have been received by the Porter in charge that no vehicles shall cross – my name and the butcher being specially mentioned.” The absence of an overbridge as well as vehicles prevented from crossing the railway by the station created, he said, the “awful possibility” that medical help may not reach Pukerua Bay in time during an emergency. The Power Board service man would also be prevented from reaching the Bay.

It was the planned Paremata bridge and highway north that ensured construction of the overbridge rather than local campaigning. In 1931 the Public Works Estimates for the following year included £325 for a survey for the best position for an overbridge,

Early in 1938 a tender for £3762 was accepted for construction of the Pukerua Bay overbridge. In August an advertisement for carpenters appeared in the Evening Post offering good wages to good men who were to apply at the “Pukerua Overbridge”.

Four years after the overbridge was completed Central Military District planned for its demolition in the event of a Japanese invasion. See Second World War Overbridge and Home Guard.