The original specification was increased by the government engineer, Peter Seton Hay, adding 15 tons of steel and about 60% more to the concrete pillars,[3] which were made from local and imported cement, Te Kuiti limestone and Cambridge sand.

[6] Possibly the confusion arose from a change of plan; the engineer, James Edward Fulton, wrote that an arch had been substituted for the original cantilever design.

Others involved with the bridge were John Alexander Low Waddell, as consultant, G. M. Fraser, contractor, and S. W. Jones as resident engineer.

In 1899 C W Hursthouse looked at the options, a 1901 meeting selected the present site[5] and, after visits in 1902[8] and 1903 by Liberal MP, Sir Joseph Ward, who opened the Sanitorium at Maungakawa, government agreed to contribute.

He arrived by special train from Auckland, his carriage was escorted through the main streets by the army and there were large crowds, streamers and the town band.