A wooden truss bridge over the Waitara River at Purangi was completed in 1899 but, because of its condition, was closed to vehicles in 1948. By 1951 it had become so badly deteriorated that the Inglewood County Council had it barricaded to stop it being used for stock or anything but foot-traffic. The bridge was finally blown up in January 1954 before work on the new bridge began.
Apart from the road from Stratford, a temporary pedestrian swing-bridge was then the only access to Purangi until the new bridge was operational.
The replacement concrete bridge was, at the time, one of the biggest bridge-building contracts in Taranaki. The contractors were McMillan & Julian Ltd (Ivan McMillan and Jack Julian - TH 20 May 1976)) of New Plymouth who had just completed the Waitara River bridge at Tarata. The Purangi bridge build took nearly two years.
It was finished in September 1955 and opened in March 1956 after the approaches on both sides were completed.
The bridge was designed by consulting engineer, A. A. Babbage and supervised by the Inglewood County engineer, E. H. M. Adams.
Related documents:
40,000 Miles to work in the Last 80 Weeks, Taranaki Herald 11 August 1955
Purangi Bridge - Official Opening Programme
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