Akaroa faces big road repair bill

Press, 13 August 1986, Page 3

Akaroa faces big road repair bill

Heavy rain in the last few months would have cost the Akaroa County Council up to $150,000 in damage to roads in Akaroa and the surrounding bays caused by slips, drop-outs, and scouring, said the Assistant County Clerk, Mr Tony Cole, yesterday. Heavy rain on Monday caused more slips, which blocked several county roads, including the road on the Barrys Bay side of French Fann, Onuku Road on the way to the Kaik (a former Maori settlement), Beech Road at. Takamatua, and the road to Stony Bay.

Council staff worked late on Monday cutting a track through the slips so that traffic could get through, said the county foreman, Mr Tom Millar. Staff were still clearing the road to French Farm

yesterday. State highway 75 on the Little River side of Hilltop Tavern and further along near Barrys Bay suffered two or three minor slips, which did not pose a hazard to motorists, said Mr Millar. A big drop-out occurred on the Stony Bay Road, where half the road dropped 30 metres. A smaller, less dangerous drop-out occurred on the Robinsons Bay Road. All the roads that were dangerous had been pegged and marked, said Mr Millar. Staff had worked quickly to cut tracks through the roads which were blocked by slips, and not many people were inconvenienced for long, he said. One of the council’s staff who lived near Onuku Road had been cut

off by a big slip and needed to be picked up and taken to work. “We made him. walk over the slip to where we had a vehicle waiting,'' said Mr Millar. The slips caused by the rain would take several days to dear, but the damage to many of the roads would take “well into the summer" to repair, said Mr Millar. Some of the roads had also been scoured and the shingle washed off by the rain. This week’s road damge would cost up to $23,000 to repair, although if the council received a National Roads Board subsidy, it might have to pay only $7OOO of that amount, said Mr Cole. The amount of the subsidy would depend on the extent of the damage.