Bridge Officially Open

Morobe’s £295,000 Bridge Officially Open

WHEN the £175,000 bridge

Markham Point, near Lae, ] was opened by the Administrate!

P-NG, on January 29, it marked

completion of the Territory’s big

bridging project to date.

It is a Bailey-type bridge of steel spans and is 1,690 feet 1( Timber piers, made of clusters seven hardwood piles (mostly A tralian hardwood although sc New Guinea Kwila logs were us have been sunk 42 feet into river bed to hold the bridge. D level is 20 feet above normal w£ level.

The bridge is eight miles fi the mouth of the Markham, miles from Lae and 86 miles f] Wau. Hornibrooks Construct! built the bridge.

Prior to cutting a ribbon i driving across the bridge (v Morobe District Commissioner, H. L. R. Niall, and a representai each of the Department of Wc and Hornibrook Construct!

Limited) the Administrator s that the opening of the bridge ] special significance both for people of the Territory, and Australia.

It meant faster and more pendable transport for the out of the Bulolo plywood factory, sawmills of the Buolo-Wau a] the agricultural products of region, and a similar improvem of supplies from Lae for th industries, and the gold min operations of the Bulolo field.

With its approaches the bri< cost over a quarter of a millio: equal to one-quarter of the c of the Commonwealth New Guii Timbers Limited Plywood mill Bulolo.

The Administrator said t] when the plywood factory builds to its full capacity, 48 million squ feet of plywood will pass over bridge each year to overs markets, and to that tonnage m be added the sawn timber from three mills in the Wau-Bul Valley.