Hurunui flood drops

Press, 15 September 1988, Page 1

Hurunui flood drops

By

ROBYN BRISTOW

State highway 7 at the Hurunui River bridge near Culverden is likely to be closed for at least 48 hours. The consultancy manager of Workscorp, Mr Alun Thomas, said yesterday that the stretch of highway which was flooded by the Hurunui River on Tuesday was being inspected. The river overflowed its banks about Ikm north of the bridge -and flowed through a recreational reserve and across the highway on a new course. The rivers and drainage engineer of the North Canterbury Catchment Board, Mr Bob Reid, said he was hopeful that staff would soon be able to divert the waterway back to its normal

course. He said the river had followed a natural depression which was probably its true path many years ago. ✓ Water was still flowing yesterday over the road, parts of which have been washed out. Flow in the river peaked at 7.2 m about 2 p.m. on Tuesday when the normar flow is about 1.5 m. It began overflowing its banks about 10 a.m., flooding the reserve and the Balmoral Cricket Club ground. Flow in the river had dropped \ significantly by late afternoon and it was hoped that damage to the banks and highway could be assessed during the next few days. A detour is available to motorists wishing to join State highway

7 north of Culverden, involving about 70km of extra travel to Parnassus, through the Leader Road to Waiau and down to the junction of State highway 7. The highway is also reduced to one lane by slips at the engineers’ camp just into the Lewis Pass and is closed at Kaiata, near Greymouth. Water levels in other North Canterbury rivers began to return slowly to normal yesterday. Mr Reid said most of the rivers peaked early on Tuesday and had begun to fall only by late evening. The Waimakariri River rose to 4.4 metres at the gorge, the Waiau to 7.1 m, the Ashley to 3m and the Rakaia to 4.4 m. Further reports, page 3