Wash-out On Gisborne Railway Line

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 April 1948, Page 8

Wash-out On Gisborne Railway Line

(P.A.) GISBORNE, April 4. A. 60-foot section of rails between two tunnels on the Gisborne-Wairoa section of railway were left hangin o in the air over a filling 40 feet deep, which was washed out by the overflowing of the culvert in the early hours of Saturday morning. ine damage has completely blocked traffic on the line, and as the gap will require bridging, engineers estimate that it will be Thursday, at the earliest before the work is completed and the line fit for resumption of the service. . The scene of the washout is at tne northern end of the Tikiwhata tunnel, in a filling two chains long linking with a smaller tunnel. Exceptionally heavy rain during Friday night and Saturday morning, when nearly five and a half inches fell, brought down heavy boulders and brushwood which blocked the entrance to the deep culvert, and, in spite of an elaborate protection, ovei - flowed against the filling, tearing out a s'ector of the filling a chain long to a depth of 40 feet.