TAITA GORGE ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 138, 13 June 1931, Page 12

TAITA GORGE ROAD

MORE ILOOD DAMAGE ! HUTT RIVER HIGH AGAIN Tho narrow margin of safety of communications between the 'Tipper Hutt Valley and the Wairarapa and Wellington while the Taita Gorge road is still unprotected was shown again last night when tho river rose owing to warm rains on heavy falls of snow in the ranges and washed away some moro of the bitumen track. There, is now only a bare twelve feet at tho narrowest place between the river edge of the bitumen and tho bluff on the landward side. ■■■'■■'. ;' ■ '. ' ■ ' v. -.

As the whole of tho. foundation of tho road is composed of "made ground," containing a good deal of rotten rock, it docs not need a strong rush of current to. underrnino it and causo it to fall. Tho actual damage done by to-day's flood was small, as tho whole of the roadway will have to bo reconditioned in any caso, and tho protective work done was strongly bound with No. 6, wiro meshing. The line of stakes marking tho boundary of the, proposed fortifications out into tho river were some of the first things to go, and a willow that has stood hitherto near the lower end of the erosion was washed away. There was still a strong force of water driving in against the bank at tho eroded portion at 11 a.m., but the river had . fallen considerably by then. It was within fifteen inches of the. bitumen at its highest, and was just beginning to overflow the Manor Park golf course. The wooden groyne above the erosion prevents the full force of the current attacking the edge of the road, but the foundation is so crumbly that it needs only'soaking'to fall. As will be seen from ■ illustrations elsewhore in this issue, the width of the road has been seriously reduced. Tho opinion was expressed by motorists this morning that a sufficiently large gang should be put on . to complete the job before a flood undoes what is being done. It was impossible to tell until the water receded how much the protective work already, accomplished has suffered. Tho work consists in the filling in of the riverbed with gabions, or more familiarly "sausages," of big boulders enclosed in- strong notting, and it is unlikely 'that any of the effect of what has been done in this direction has been' lost.. The danger of the complete severance of connections, however, appears very real. It only needs another flopd of similar dimensions to make it .unsafe for buses to pass. The edge is- undermined in spots, * and the soft , and rubbly nature of the foundation is such that a heavy load might catfse the edge to collapse if furthor . eating away occurs. . '