A LANDSLIDE

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 37, 12 August 1927, Page 10

A LANDSLIDE

HUTT ROAD BLOCKED

30,000 TONS OF ROCK

TRAFFIC PASSING

The biggest slip winch has so far occurred on the Hutt road fell in the early hours of this morning. The fall to midday is estimated to contain 25,000 yards, with at least another 10,000 to come down, and more to be removed be- ; fore the road is safe again. The while hillside for a width of 270 feet is on the creep, and a pile of rubble reaches right across the Hutt road, and is encroaching on the cycle track, over which traffic is able to pass. The first notification of trouble was given by the Police Department, which at about half-past one this morning telephoned the council's district overseer, Mr. W. H. Whiting, to advise him that passers-by had noticed indications of a big slip coming at just the same place where the landslide of Christmas Week, 1924, occurred. Mr. Whiting turned out and stood by till this morning to give warning to road-users. Prom 2 o'clock onwards boulders continued to fall, with a steady dribble of loose stuff, and at 5 o'clock the first of the heavy falls took place, about 500 cubic yards, say about 500 to 600 tons, coming down with a run. The dribbling and occasional fairly hoavy falls ca£ ried on till at about 7 o'clock there was only enough room for a big lorry to run past on the bitumen. Half an hour later there was room and no more on the macadam, but for safety's sake all traffic was directed to the cycle track. . By 10 this morning the fall was possibly about 10,000 cubic yards, with more coming all the time, until at halfpast ten the whole face commenced to 'pop" out handfuls of small stuff, and big rocks, consequently loosened, bowled down the steep loose face. This popping out" was evidence enough of a tremendous pushing from behind a plain warning that something big was on the way. It certainly was, for the whole face gave out at once, and the slip grew in a couple of minutes from 10,000 to 12,000 cubic yards to a fall estimated by the engineers as from 25,000 to 30,000 yards. MOEB TO COME. Although the actual width of the slip is less than 100 yards, the fan-shaped foot of the fall covers much more than that length of roadway. There was a ! continual trickle of wet rubble all the morning, and occasionally a big rock would start a rumbling avalanche that sent stones right out on to the cycle I track. Above the bared face, there is a subsidence for some fifteen feet back and the whole of this piece of ground could be seen from above to be on the move, and must come down. Behind that them is a knob backed by a bench which looks as though it will have to be removed .before the spot is safe, but it is unlikely to come down at present. ONE EYE ON THE SLIP. Traffic was possible- only when the slip appeared to be quiescent. Flagmen at either end signalled waiting vehicles whether to advance or stop, and some of the motor-cars had exciting passages. One car was seen to be' struck by a large stone, and probably there were others. "Speed for motoor3 30 miles an hour" was a sign that for once did not apply. It was an anxious time for the drivers of cars, because queues f«rmed, in spite of the efforts of the traffic officers to get the waiting vehicles through, and there were occasional hold-ups, by reason of the string of traffic, which meant that motors had to stand in a line on the cycle track immediately in front of the slip, which was never still. Occasionally a bigrock started off from the top, but gen-" erally split into fragments before reaching the bottom, but there was one notable exception. A rock over three feet in diameter, apparently more solid than its fellows, spun merrily down the hillside, hopped nimbly across the road, and struck the railway fence, only a moment before the passage of a bus. Horsed vehicles, even those drawn by draught horses, ran the gauntlet at a trot. ■ NO CLEARING YET. _ The liveliness of the moving hill- j side, and the continual cascade of stones, varying in size from that of a football to that of a perambulator, made it quite impossible for anything ! to be done towards clearing away the rubble from the road, and this will not be possible to attempt until things have become more stationary above. How much more will come down of its own accord is uncertain. There is one outward-bulging point half-way up the slip, containing some 3000 tons of stuff, that may come at any moment. On the city side the whole of the upper part of the face is undercut, and must also come down. The slip face extends upwards for several hundred feet, and at the top there is some moving ground that will come down of its own accord, while above that again there is apparently need for the removal of more ground to make the slope uniform. Even a layman, looking from above at the turf and gorse bushes pushed up 1 into ridges, all on the move, with j clods and turf continually falling : down cracks, can see that it will take weeks to make the spot secure. Probably nothing can be done to clear the spoil before Monday; the face is obvi- , ously too dangerous to attempt to work to-day. Any further heavy rain will not improve matters. SLIDE FORECASTED IN 1926. This big slide has been a long time i on the way, for after the slip of 1924, of about 10,000 cubic yards, the engi- ! neers were not at all satisfied with the appearance of the hill and the unstable appearance of the "overburden" above the raw face. As far as was possible the position was made safe by bringing down spoil and rock that appeared more than ordinarily dangerous, the material being deposited in Wainwright's gully, near Kaiwarra. In April, 1926, the then City Engineer, Mr. A. J. Paterson, reported to the City and Suburban Board that a still heavier slip was certain, as the i face of the hill above the 1924 slip j showed signs of movement and deep I cracks were being formed. Certain of ! the councillors also went to the top of the hill, among them Councillor Semple, who was considerably impressed with what was extremely likely to happen.

Mr. Paterson suggested to the board that if a very bad slip did come down the spoil would shoot out clear across the road, and would possibly also block the railway line. He proposed that steps should be taken right away to remove the dangerous overburden, by carrying it down to the Hutt road by means of chutes. The board decided to communicate with the Railway Department, asking that it should bear a share of the cost of making the face safe. A reply was received from the Department, however, stating that its officers had inspected the hillside and were of the opinion that no trouble was likely to be given the Department by a slip, and that a3 the roadway was altogether outside the Department's jurisdiction it was not prepared to act in the matter.

The proposal to shoot the dangerous stuff away was then dropped, but at various times during the past two years the council has attended to the

face, tnaumng away anything that looked shaky. A few weeks ago another slip came down, but not Enough to make real trouble, though th* macadam track on the -ut of-town side was blocked. Following this °Z a very heavy trimming was made, the face being gone over for a couple of nindred feet above the roadway, though even then it was realised that the jagged looking crest of the face was none too solid. Beside the trimmin* away of loose stuff, attention was given to surface drainage away above the face, in order that stormwater should be given a clear run down hill instead of soaking down and starting more trouble. The continued wet weather, however, was too much for either trimming or better surface drainage and the road to-day is nicely blocked! and before everything is clear again a tidy wages bill will have been made out, maybe £4000 or more. The cost of clearing the read presumably wil' Board Charge °nth 9 loCal Highways . T, he'lO '°O° yards of the J924 clip took the best part of a month to get a^vay and this much greater blockage will take a good deal jonger. As it Happens the council's steam navvy which did its first big jod on the 1924 block, is at present busy for, the Habour Board, excavating material from near the Miramar Wharf as filling to go behind the Burnham Wharf breastwork. Whether the council will be' able to arrange for a return of the navvy for this urgent job rests with the Harbour Board. The only other suitable mechanical excavators about Wellington are the property of the Public Works Department, and it is possible that one or more of these machines may be available to the council. Certainly the block could be removed by pick and shovel work, but that would spell many months of work and very high expense. THE TRAFPIC PKOBLEM. The 5 o'clock traffic rush by road will present a.-problem. If the remaining ground has come down by then, the remaining cycle track will also be blocked, and until it all has come down it is unsafe to commence the clearing of the road. A solution would be the removal of tho railway fence, allowing road traffic to encroach on the railway track with proper precautions. This would only be necessary in the case of motor-cars, because full arrangements have been made for a continued bus service by means of transhipments. Queues of a. score of vehicles were frequent this morning, when the traffic was at its lowest, so that the 5 o'clock rush may be expected to result in an interesting situation.