THE GORGE ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 39, 15 February 1941, Page 13

THE GORGE ROAD

CLOSED FOR WEEKS

SHIFT WORK TO BE

DONE

Late yesterday afternoon exceptionally heavy rain poured down the Ngahauranga Gorge area and continued with varying severity through .the night. So great was the flood that the temporary steps taken to prevent further damage to the highway were swept aside. Now the road has collapsed over its full width and to a great depth, so that the gorge must be closed to all traffic for some weeks at least. Power plant was collected on the job today, and .next week shift work will be done under electric lighting.

Several times in recent years the patch of country immediately about Ngahauranga Gorge has been subject to deluges of rain far more severe than the city or the Hiitt Valley, and that was so yesterday afternoon. During the morning a dragline shovel . .cleared the foot of. the slip which blocked a culvert and led to all the damage. The downpour swept the new foot into the culvert mouth, with the result that the water backed up until it overtopped the level of an old water drive (a feature of the old ..' gorge road)- and. poured put full bore ■from this abandoned tunnel oh to the road surface. The waterfall over the ■wash-out was back again in greater volume than before, and rock and filling were swept downstream, the chasm eating back till-' the whole width; of highway, had gone for three or four chains. The first prohibition of traffic was issued in the -interests of safety, for the inner roadway was still usable, but there, is no vehicular way left now. ; How long the first repair work, to enable traffic to get through, may take, the engineers could not say tnis morning. The lower lengths of • culvert were well filled- with debris : carried down, but they were designed with a\ery ' wide storm margin and carried the water, but. some trouble«»followed at ■••• the last length of culvert past,-the Wellington, Meat Export-Company's works and under the Hutt Road. A trap was erected here to prevent shingle and , stone entering: and this was packed solid by the afternoon storm. The water spread, over the flat and invaded a pelt room and the general store of the works, but sandbag and . .emergency barricade work by . the company staff kept the damage down. "Silt and water flowed over the gardens," and in some cases through the cottages at the lower part .of the gorge, but-the damage was light.DAM OVERFLOWS. - The staff and employees of Messrs. J. C. Hutton and Company's bacon -'■'• factory had their own storm troubles in the afternoon. This factory is in ,a valley off the gorge and.has a reser- - rrvoir'-of itsVpwn -about. half;^,.mile up " "itsvalley. '■■■ The afternoon deluge • overtopped the dam and water poured . -down the steep bed and through .seve- • ral departments of the works. It ran eighteen inches to -two feet deep over ' the service road and generally swept .- the factory site. A mob of 200 pigs • in the holding pen had to-swim for it and keep, swimming (thus disproving again the old woman's tale,, of., throat•'•cutting) until they .were hauled out to safety. - Only one. was. lost. Silt ■ and water threatened . .stocks/, and stores, but the # freezing chamber doors held out all but a trifling amount of water. Office staff and factory workers turned to in shifting stores from floor level, and this morning things were decidedly damp, but otherwise not badly damaged. "I've seen rain that Australians call' rain, 3' one'of the staff said this morning,'"but this was real rain, tons to the minute." , ALTERNATIVE ROADS.

Though the gorge road will be closed for some weeks there is no difficulty over access, for the Ngaio Gorge and Onslow Roads are direct - alternatives to the gorge, and the Western Hutt, Haywards, and Pahautanui Road is open to the north. j