Main North Road Cut Near Kaikoura

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28895, 15 May 1959, Page 10

Main North Road Cut Near Kaikoura

Slips and flooding have blocked the Main North road north and south of Kaikoura. There has’ been heavy rain in North Canterbury and Marlborough in the last two days. AU north-bound traffic was stopped 10 miles outside Kaikoura about 9 p.m. when the road was closed by flooding, according to the Automobile Association, Canterbury. The inland road from Waiau to Kaikoura was also closed. The main road was also blocked 10 miles north of Kaikoura and the shingle fans on the north side of the Clarence bridge were impassable. The A.A.C. could not advise when the road would be reopened.

Heavy tains on the Kaikoura coast yesterday caused slips that blocked the Main North road a mile and a quarter north of the Conway river and cut the Christ-church-Picton railway line between Parnassus and Hundalee, but traffic was flowing through again by early last evening although floodwater covered the highway in patches and more slips were expected. Constant heavy rain has been falling in and around Kaikoura for the last week and 2.10 inches fell in the township in the 24 hours to 9 a.m. yesterday. Slips in cuttings on the railway between Parnassus and Hundalee blocked the line at 9.15 a.m. yesterday. A railways spokesman said the worst slip was near Ferniehurst, 92 miles by rail from Christchurch. Passengers Transhipped Passengers on the rail-car from Picton to Christchurch and those on the Christchurch-Picton rail-

car were carried between Parnassus and Hundalee by a shuttle service of railways and private buses. The line had been cleared by 3.50 p.m., but there was danger of more slips if the rain continued, the spokesman said. There was a slip two miles and a half north of Hundalee at 10.30 a.m. that blocked the highway. Earthmoving equipment moved in to clear the road. Men with shovels cleared smaller slips. A motorist who drove from the Hurunui river to Kaikoura early last evening said he found water across the road in several places. “There were about half a dozen slips through the Hundalees, but when I came through they were all cleared or being cleared,” he said. He said one slip was being cleared by a front-end loader, and a bulldozer and a grader were standing by because of the danger of more slips. “Liquid mud” had poured down a hillside and across the highway at one point, but this had easily been pushed off the road by a bulldozer, he said. Surface Flooding Surface water covers roads in other parts of North Canterbury, and many unsealed roads, especially in the Cust Valley, have become muddy and are almost impassable. Paddocks in some areas are flooded, and streams have again swollen after dropping after the

two recent fine days. In Cheviot, south of the township, about 150 acres of farmland are under water because the Jed river has backed up. Rainfall in the last two days was 3.76 in. Some hundreds of acres of the Flaxton basin are also under water. Some areas such as Culverden and Darfield over an inch of rain yesterday up to 5 p.m. while in Springston only light rain fell all day. The Culverden and Hanmer areas had a nine-inch fall of snow yesterday. Post and Telegraph linesmen worked most of yesterday to repair damage to the lines. An estimated 3in of snow fell in the foothills near Oxford. Some farmers fear that unless the rains ease up crops such as wheat may begin to rot. A Loburn fruit farmer has the equivalent of 2000 cases of fruit still to be harvested. The harvest was first prevented by a shortage of cases and the rain has made a further delay. He may escape serious financial loss if the wet weather clears up soon. In most South and Mid-Can-terbury areas there has been only light rain or drizzle and in some places no rain at all over the last two days. Cold southerly winds have been blowing. However in Akaroa there has been three inches in the same two days. The groper fishing fleet has been unable to go out. In the city yesterday heavy rain came intermittently, but there was little for most of the evening. About half an inch fell for the whole 24 hours.

Today more drizzle and rain with southerly to easterly winds are forecast for Canterbury.