Kopu Bridge, Coromandel Heritage Trust and the Treasury

I was looking around this morning for information of the Kopu Bridge (a favourite of mine and also of my dear friend Mad Bush). To quote the Wiki article:

"The Kopu Bridge is a single lane swing bridge that spans the Waihou River, near its emergence into the Firth of Thames in the Thames-Coromandel District of New Zealand's North Island. The bridge was completed in 1928 and is part of State Highway 25. The swinging span in the middle of the bridge is 43 metres long and with an overall length of 463 metres, the bridge is the longest and oldest single lane bridge within the state highway network. It is also the only surviving road bridge of the swing span type in the country and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust lists the bridge as a category 1 historic place. It is the first available crossing of the Waihou River and the main link between the Hauraki Plains and Coromandel Peninsula. Due to a gradual increase in the traffic between Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula, by the early 1990s the bridge became the most heavily used single lane bridge in the country with, traffic volumes exceeding 4,000 vehicles per day. Traffic flow over the bridge is controlled by traffic lights and the bridge is notorious for queues which form during peak times such as holiday weekends."

Good news is, that while the national transport authorities will be building a new bridge,(due to start this year), they won't be wrecking the old one. Not just yet.

Anyway -- I found The Treasury while looking for old photos of the bridge. The Coromandel Heritage Trust are a new entry onto the history field, and I think their website's worth a bit of a browse through. Yes, it's also another link I'll add to the ol' left hand column.