Hill subsidence watch

Press, 17 August 1979, Page 18

Hill subsidence watch

The Heathcote County Council is keeping a daily watch on minor subsidence in county hill areas. Poles will be driven into a bank in Kidson Terrace to shore it up if any additional movement is seen in the road carriageway. County staff will immediately investigate a complaint of road slumping outside a private entrance in Macmillan Avenue. Unchannelled stormwater appears to be the cause, but this is a Drainage Board responsibility, according to the deputy county engineer, Mr J. Christenson. Slumping at the head of Hollis Avenue, affecting a footpath in an uninhabited area, is also being closely watched.

Cr Betty Roberts said that excavations on the hills for electrical and Post Office installations should be care-

fully monitored. Some installations were not backfilled properly, and seepage through ill-compacted earth could undermine roads. “We need to watch this very carefully after Abbotsford,” she said. | The County chairman (Mr IJ. M. McKenzie) said that : i tembers of the Mongrel Mob who had cleared drains on the Summit Road had done a job as good as any contractor or council staff could do. “I would have no hesitation employing these groups,” Cr McKenzie said. "Given incentive and involvement they come up to expectations and exceed them.” The 12 men were employed on a $22,000 council contract and finished it to standard before time. They were paid by the Labour Deipartment under its Temporary Employment Scheme.

A contract of $30,000 for renovation at the old dump site should also be done by a group who would give the ratepayers best value for money, said Cr McKenzie. The committee will ask the National Roads Board to study the construction of roads round the base of the hills because of their proneness to water damage. The board’s road-research unit has asked local authorities to suggest items for research on road maintenance. National Roads Board cycleway subsidies should extend to cycleways separate from roads, the committee said. Subsidies should also apply to cycleways which could be built less expensively than those now eligible ” for subsidy at present. Subsidies are at present provided only on a kerb-to-ikerb basis.