STORM DAMAGE INSPECTED

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 9, 6 October 1941, Page 10

STORM DAMAGE INSPECTED

Tour Of City And Suburbs j By Mayor And Council WORKS COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER POSITION Saturday morning was devoted by the mayor of Wellington and members of the City Council to an inspection of the damage done iu the city and suburbs by the rainstorm last week. . Under the guidance of the City Engineer (Mr. K. Luke) the party started from the Town Hall at 9.30 a.m., and made at once for Clifton Terrace. On the southern side of the old Terrace School there were several small slips of little consequence, but on the northern side (Aurora Terrace), abovethe grounds of the Wellington Club,, it was found that the asphalted footpath had slipped completely away at one point, necessitating either a new filling and wall, or a platform footpath to bridge the gap. .Such minor damage sank into insig" nificance before the scene of desolation and destruction found 200 yards above the industrial settlement at the foot of the Ngaio Gorge. Here the Kaiwarra Stream had risen in a few hours into a mighty torrent, which swept away a bridge, damaged the weir ,and tore through an_ oil company's grounds and buildings, then across the Hutt road and through Cable and Co.'s foundry on its way to the sea. The flood waters cut a mass out of the’roadway and washed it downstream, carrying away telephone poles and wires along with it as though they were straws. The most serious problem for the engineers is to reconstruct the section of the road that is half eaten away. Below this point the road side of the stream had been protected with netted stone groins which stood well up to the > test. Mr. Luke said he thought that 1

this form of protection would have to be continued past the danger point, and that the required breadth of road would have to be secured by digging into the hillside, which, at this point, lent itself to such encroachment. High above the Ngaio Gorge Road, the old Porirua Road (blocked in several places by slips), contributed a lovely waterfall to the scene. ;JA good deal of damage was done by the storm to the work associated with the erection of a new oil tank on the hili'side of the road. Dozens of Wadestown Slips. After leaving this scene of desolation the party visited Wadestown, where there are dozens of slips all over the place, some serious: enough to block half the road, or carry away entrance paths leading to properties erected above road level. This, indeed, was found to be a common occurrence in certain districts. In Mlraugi Road a slip of soft mushy silt and spoil had descended on a house, leaving about 18 inches of mud on ’the ground floor. There were minor slips in Sefton Street and Oban Street. Other slips of varying magnitude were noticed along Wilton Road. In one part only enough space for one car to travel was left on this road. Further on the big slip which blocks Birdwood Street (above the Chaytor Street tip) was inspected. The spoil from this slip will probably complete the filling of the tip.

Kelburn got off pretty lightly, but some damage was done by slips in. Epuni Street and the elevated Mortimer Terrace, a part of the city where the roads are narrow, tortuous and steep. Some little damage was noticed on Ohiro Road. In Jackson Street, Island Bay, a bad creep of land from the Town Belt had caused people to vacate their premises. They, had heard ominous cracks and noticed a bulge in the back wall of the kitchen, against which the moving earth had piled. In Freeling Street, not so far away, the party was given an example of what may follow the track of work illdone. A side entrance to a house had been provided by making a little excavation in the sloping ground and protecting it with an Sin. concrete wall. Unfortunately, the wall was given no footing, and was not reinforced; so that when the land became overloaded with water, it just pushed the concrete right up against the house.

An official mentioned that no one Is allowed to build a concrete wall on his property without submitting the plans to the city engineer’s department; also that no wall erected by the city engineer’s department had failed in this emergency. Earth That Creeps. There were a few minor slips on the Island Bay Road, but more serious trouble was found on the Houghton Bay Road, which is completely blocked for 50 feet, about 500 yards from the waterfront. Here a great mass of soil has sagged down a fairly gentle slope and slopped across the road to a depth of six to eight feet. The engineers explained that the slopes of the hills ou both sides of the road were “creeping country.” It is scarred all over with evidences of this fact. The last big creep just missed a very nice house. Had it been 20 feet further to the south it might have shifted the house, grounds and all. Engineers and councillors voted the ground dangerous and freely expressed the view that the matter of issuing building permits for houses on it should be very carefully considered. One official suggested that the land might be acquired and planted as a reserve, because of the potential danger. The slip on Crawford Road was inspected. Here were other cases of graded entrance paths swept away. Some nasty little slips were seen on Maida Vale Road, and one bad one on the Carlton Gore Road, where the front garden of a high-perched residence had slipped into the road. Finally, the party inspected the big slip in the old quarry adjoining the Orient. Private Hotel in Oriental Bay, opposite the tramway terminus. There some 3000 yards of rocky spoil had dropiK'd from the top of the quarry, and spread all over the pretty little reserve which had been created in the area, smashing half the scarlet-paint-ed seats. It is’not likely that this spoil will be removed; indeed, it is not unlikely that more may descend from the almost vertical face. Special Meeting of Committee.

There is to be a special meeting of the works committee this afternoon to consider possible ways and means of meeting the emergency. As the spending departments of the City Corporation have nothing to spare from their allocations (indeed, in some cases the annual alloeafion has already been spent) arrangements will have to be made to secure money to meet the cost of the numerous road works which cannot be postponed, works such as the repair of the Ngaio Gorge Road.