The Clodlands Bridge is a two-lane truss road bridge over the Waikato River connecting Clodlands to Hamilton Central. In 1968, it repurposed an old railroad bridge that was completed around the end of July 1883. In 1985, the highway bridge was designated as a Category 2 bridge. Approximately 11,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily. The bridge is the second busiest route in the central business district for cyclists, with 135 vehicles at peak traffic in 2009, and the number of vehicles is increasing. In 2019, shoals were added to the lane markings to make the bridge safer for 600 cyclists a day. Buses and route 11 to Rototuna pass through the bridge. A few meters downstream, it was replaced by a new railroad bridge, opened on September 19, 1964. The old bridge was a 7-span, 143 m (469 ft) prestressed concrete box girder bridge. The span is supported by reinforced concrete piers on monolithic piles. The bridge was constructed by Wilkinson & Davis Construction Co. (involved in a 1959 court case and deregistered in 1967) and is approximately 20 ft (6.1 m) lower than the highway bridge and 18 m (18 m) below the normal river bridge. (59 ft) high. The bridge was the first in the country to be tensioned with 100-ton Freycinet cables.
History of the old railroad bridge
The bridge was designed in 1880, and on November 3, 1881, W. Sims was awarded a contract for £5,519. Sir George Grey built the first railroad extension sod at Clodland in 1879, but there seems to have been little publicity about the bridge, with only a minimal mention in 1883. It was reported that the steelwork for the bridge was shipped in 1881. Progress was so slow that the contract was awarded on September 18, 1882 for 13s 6d and 4312 pounds plus a cost of 1376 pounds for four cast cylinders with an A (a total of 5688 pounds, equivalent to just under $1 million). J.R. Stone was re-signed by &G Price. However, the foundations proved to be inadequate and it was determined that the cylinders would need to be straightened and the foundations deepened by 3-24 feet (7.3 m), and construction ceased in November 1882. This was done. The bridge was completed on September 21, 1883, and was used by construction trains until the Hamilton and Morrinsville Railroad opened on October 1, 1884. It was initially tested with a load of 117 tons. Additional cylinders were added to the original two cylinders on either side of the main channel to handle the higher loads. Two new cylinders were ordered from S Luke & Co in 1906 for £2354 and a new deck from A & T Burt Ltd. It was built in 1907 for £5872.
Further reinforcement was designed in 1934 to accommodate 135-ton Class K locomotives. There was pressure to build a footbridge before the railroad opened. See also the newspaper report of 1893. A committee was appointed. The widening and strengthening of the bridge allowed for the construction of a pedestrian bridge in 1908, but there were complaints about the lack of lighting and the prohibition of bicycles. The pedestrian bridge was renovated in 1936. It was also soon under pressure to remove the railroad from the heart of the central business district. In 1912, the County Council proposed lowering the line. The 1938 project was canceled due to the war in 1939. The National Highway Commission then promoted the plan, and in September 1959, the Ministry of Labor began planning to put the railroad in a tunnel and replace the old bridge with a bridge at tunnel level.