SENSATIONAL EAST COAST SLIP

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 306, 21 September 1943, Page 4

SENSATIONAL EAST COAST SLIP

Wairoa-Gisborne Line

THREE ACRES OF HILLSIDE SUBSIDE

Dominion Special Service. HASTINGS, September 20.

The slip which lias split the GisborueWairoa railroad just, this side of Waikokopu is sensational. As a single subsidence, ollicials of the Wellington district maintenance section of the Railways Department consider it the biggest that has ever occurred in New Zealand affecting rail communication. A representative of “The Dominion,” at the scene today, saw how three acres of hillside had slipped away toward the beach, leaving a great sunken gulf where once there had been grass-covered hillside sloping gradually down toward the railroad. The slip occurred while some railway maintenance men were clearing minor slips nearby. There was no roar or crash ; just a quiet giant subsidence. There are five chains of sleepers and rails lying across the bed of the gap now; the supporting built-up railroad embankment support is 30 yards further out from its original position. The remarkable feature is that it moved there without a break in its surface. A section of the road between Nuhaka and Waikokopu which ran a short distance out from the railway, on tile beach side, was shifted 50 yards and one of the first jobs was to construct a new stretch to enable lorries and other wheeled equipment being used on the reconstruction job to have access from both sides. It is soped that it will be possible today to tranship rail passengers for Gisborne at Nuhaka and carry them the short distance to Waikokopu where they wtd transfer to another train to take them on to Gisborne. The reverse arrangement will apply to passengers south from Gisborne. At present passengers are being transhipped at Nuhaka and taken to Gisborne, 43 miles away, by bus; the arrangement it was hoped to have effective today will save hundreds of gallons of petrol. . „„ The shifting of an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 yards of bank (approximately 900 to 1300 tons) is entailed in the job of restoring uninterrupted rail communication. At present the slip looks like a big bite taken out of the hillside. Bulldozers At Work. The top section of the bite is 60 to 70 feet up ; here six bulldozers are on the job levelling out the remains of this seelion of hill to fill in the gap below. These machines are being worked 24 hours a day and not without risk as they perch themselves way up on the top edge ot the slip ami coming what seems periously near to the side, push their contributions down into the gap. The slip was caused by very deepseated underground water which originally got away underneath the hill. Now this water is being tapped by concrete pipes, two feet six inches in diameter, and carried clear of the railway Hue (or where it was) and the road. A few minutes before the slip occurred an engine and wagons passed over the section and'there was then no indication either to the engine crew, or the maintenance men working in the vicinity. of the pending great subsidence. There have been bigger jobs ot this nature, like clearing the Stratford-Olia-kune slips and the Eskdale Valley line, say railway ollicials, but there has been no greater individual subsidence. With benzine restrictions the workers arc not hampered by sightseers while otliers who might customarily look over the scene are now busily engaged in another direction. Many people round the district are riding up along the beach on horseback to watch (he operations mid in the aggregate making a larger assembly of riders than is usually seen together these days. When the line is restored it will at this point, b 0 closer inland than before. To effect this a bluff on the Nuhaka side is being cleared away by bullilozers and its composition swept into the gap below On the Waikokopu side a papa spur will be blasted to make way for the new section. It is n big job by any standards and the engineer in charge at the scene when asked today io estimate when the line would be restored just said, “I’m not making any guesses.”