SLIP CLEARED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 260, 2 November 1945, Page 6

SLIP CLEARED

MAIN TRUNK LINE

TRAINS NORMAL TO-NIGHT

With the big slip near Kakahi in the King Country almost cleared, the Railways Department announces that normal traffic will be resumed on the main trunk line as from six o clock this evening. The express for Wellington which left Auckland at 3 p.m. to-day and also the Limited express this "evening will both travel by the main line, as will the north-bound expresses from Wellington due here to-morrow morning.

The restriction on goods, which were not accepted for points south of Manunui. has also been lifted. Only one express left Wellington for Auckland yesterday and this arrived at 10.15 this morning, 3i hours late.

It is stated that speed restrictions will apply over the section of the line which has been reconstructed, but the delay to trains as a result is not expected to be extensive.

In view of reports of the magnitude of the subsidence the news that the main trunk line would again be open to-day came as a pleasant surprise this morning. It is evident tliat the engineering and construction staffs of the Railways and- Public Works Departments worked at top pressure to achieve a clearance so soon.

Yesterday morning the line was twisted and broken for a length of more than a quarter of a mile near Kakahi, and the ground was still moving in the vicinity. It appeared that the whole hillside had moved on a bed of papa rock. There was also evidence that a stream had gone underground and might be the source of further trouble.

Many acres of ground were involved in the-subsidence and large crevasses appeared in several places. The road to Kakahi showed slips and subsidences up to 6ft in the neighbourhood of the railway. About an acre of native bush was destroyed through the trees being uprooted by earth movements.

Yesterdav the scene was visited by Mr. J. 'Sawers, general manager of railways, and leading engineers in the Department, and later mechanical equipment on the job was augmented to enable the work of restoring the line to be expedited.