Saturday 23 March 2019

North Auckland Line [3B]: Okaihau Branch 2 - Kawiti Ballast Pit

Kawiti Ballast Pit is near Otiria on the Okaihau Branch. The pit was still open in the 1970s, with machinery and track in place.

The pit traverses more or less the same territory as a section of the Okaihau Branch that crosses a local river with several large bridges, but it doesn't have the bridges. This led to the idea that the bridges should be bypassed by diverting the branch line through the ballast pit site, but this never occurred.