BIG SLIP IN GORGE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31774, 3 September 1968, Page 14

BIG SLIP IN GORGE

40 Cars Held Up

fFrom Our Own Reporter) GREYMOUTH, September 2. A huge slip at the end of the iron railings near Reid's Falls, on the Otira Gorge highway, held up traffic during the week-end. The driver of a bulldozer which was brought from Arthur’s Pass through the Otira tunnel described the slip as one of the biggest he had worked on for some years and one of the most awkward to get at. Working from both ends of the slip, Ministry of Works employees had cleared the rubble by 4.30 p.m. yesterday. This enabled some 40 waiting cars to negotiate the temporary clearing round the toe of the falls.

The ministry’s resident engineer in Greymouth (Mr H. A. Grigg) said today that work was continuing on completely clearing the road and making the ground above safe. Once the remainder of the slip was cleared iron railings would be placed along the rest of this section of the road. “We were lucky that only part of the slip fell on the road and that the road surface itself was not seriously damaged by the falling rocks," said Mr Grigg. One motorist considers himself very fortunate. Just before the big slip he got out of his car and removed a small rock on the road. He had only just driven away when the big slip occurred. The Westport-Greymouth coastal road is blocked to traffic by a large slip at Costello’s Hill, a trouble spot 12 miles from Westport. It is expected to be cleared tomorrow morning.