HIGHWAYS FLOODED

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 145, 22 June 1938, Page 12

HIGHWAYS FLOODED

HUTT & GORGE ROADS

DOWNPOUR IN THE HILLS

Heavy rain this morning caused some minor flooding of the Ngahauranga Gorge Road and the Hutt Road, and although, there appeared to be no material damage, motorists in the vicinity had to slacken speed to pass through in comfort and safety.

The source of the trouble appeared to be near the Main Trunk railway bridge across the gorge, where the storm water, carrying down clay and dirt from the hills, poured down on to the road. Two large streams were formed, one on each side of the bitumen, and these were fed by other streams until they reached a point opposite the abattoirs, where they united and spread right across the highway. Here the yellowish water flowed swiftly, bubbling up where stones had been carried down, and forcing up a manhole, part of the drainage system, in the middle of the road. The camber of the road again shifted the flood, and the water streamed down the lefthand side in front of a line of dwellings, but as these were on slightly raised ground the properties did not appear to suffer.

It was where the Gorge Road joins the Hutt Road that the flooding culminated. Here, on comparatively flat ground, the water spread out until it was right across the road, impeding traffic travelling in both directions, and also traffic to and from the gorge., It reached a depth of several inches in the vicinity of the petrol station on the corner. Some of the cars coming along the Hutt Road did not slacken speed to any extent, and threw the muddy water as high as their roofs, but the majority of motorists were more careful, and took the water at a slow speed. One motor-cycle, with & pillion rider, appeared to be in difficulty proceeding up the Gorge Road, and the two men on it had an unpleasant job assisting the machina with their feet when it was in' the worst part of the flood.

After the flood had reached its height the water started to recede gradually, the streams from the hills became less in volume, and traffic moved with greater ease. At odd intervals along the Hutt Road, between Wellington and Ngahauranga, water from the hills lay in pools along the side of the road, reaching in some places as far as the edge of the bitumen. TRAIN HELD UP. "™" The flood brought down so much silt and rubbish on the Hutt Road about three-quarters of a mile north of Ngahauranga that it spread across the road and on to the railway line. This resulted in the 10.45 a.m. train from Upper Hutt being stopped. at Petone, where the passengers were transferred to buses and brought into town. Although the transfer was made as expeditiously, as possible, some time was lost, as the "buses themselves had to proceed slowly along the flooded portions of the road. Other trains maintained their schedules, but ran at reduced speed at the affected part of the line.