large viaducts 18 and 30 metres high; in 1910 Massey Bros (Auckland engineers from 1901 to 1913) won a £3,002 contract for steel girders for the Gisborne-Rotorua Railway on the Otoko to Rakauroa section. Much of the line was built on steep grades of up to 1 in 30, and many tight curves were required. Despite all earthworks being carried out by pick and shovel, and although hindered at times by floods, washouts and landslips and (in the later stages) a wartime shortage of materials, progress continued at a slow but steady pace, and the line was opened to Moutohora at 78.5 km by 26 November 1917. Once at Moutohora, even though over the main divide, there was no easy way for the railway to link up with the rest of the NZR network, as a definitive line for a connection to the Bay of Plenty had never been identified. By 1920, 13 separate surveys had sought a practical route, but the expensive nature of the works required to provide a descent to the Bay of Plenty always deterred politicians from authorising any further extension of the line. In his annual report to parliament in 1916, the Minister of Public Works, William Fraser stated "Construction beyond the Kowhai Road [Moutuhora] Station cannot be put in hand until the route of the mainline towards the Bay of Plenty is definitely located." With the completion of the branch to Moutohora in 1917, construction workers were almost immediately transferred from Moutohora to Ngatapa to continue work on the line south. In 1924, with the Napier - Wairoa section of the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line was under construction and a short section between Wairoa and Waikokopu had been completed; it was decided that year to extend the line from Waikokopu to Gisborne via the coast rather than the longer inland route to Ngatapa. With the passing of time it became clear that Gisborne would be connected to the rest of the NZR system via this coastal route. This line south was finally completed and opened for traffic in 1942. There was briefly interest in reviving a connection when the East Coast Main Trunk reached Taneatua in 1928. A new survey was undertaken by local surveying firm Grant and Cooke, proposing the new line leave the branch south of Matawai, crossing a saddle near Te Wera and then following the Koranga and Wairata streams