 Contact Artefacts | MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | NZASM South-Eastern Line Bridge over the Vaal River NATAL GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS: Contractor MITCHESON AND KOLLBRUNNER: Engineer |  | ||||||
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Click to view map Coordinates: | Move << up the old NZASM line to the previous bridge or move down >> to the next one This, the Vaal River Bridge, was the most important of the bridges of the South-Eastern Line. It was designed as a composite truss-girder bridge with a centre span of 50m flanked by similar, but smaller structures at each end spanning 30m each. All these were supported by two sandstone abutments and free standing sandstone piers which rose some 16m above the river bed. The NGR, in an agreement with the NZASM, were appointed as main contractors to the project, but with the proviso that they would follow the NZASM designs and specifications. The masonry substructure had been awarded as one of twelve contracts for earthworks, bridge and culvert masonry and the supply of ballast. The contract for the structural steelwork of the Vaal River Bridge was part of the awarding of the contract for the provision of all bridge superstructures to the Durban firm of MITCHESON AND KOLLBRUNNER, the steel structures being supplied by the Union Steelworks of Dortmund, Germany. In the Anglo-Boer War in the Great Retreat of February to September of 1900 it was blown up by the NZASM blasting experts who had previously served with the Corps of Engineers of the Netherlands army, but by July of that year repaired by the ROYAL ENGINEERS. When replaced by the multi-arched concrete bridge in 1958 it fell into disuse, and only the stonemasonry structures remain. Books and articles that reference NZASM South-Eastern Line Bridge over the Vaal River
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