Big Task In Reopening Otira Route

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 June 1950, Page 7

Big Task In Reopening Otira Route

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day (0.C.) —At least a fortnight will elapse before Arthurs Pass is again open for traffic, large portions of the highway having disappeared in the May 27 flood. Restoration work began on Monday. - , . A . To find out for himself just what Irid happened to the road, the District Engineer of the Ministry of Works (Mr W. F. Young) recently walked from Arthurs Pass to Otira. It took him two hours to get to the summit, a trip that would normally take half an hour, and his car was not able to proceed more than a hundred yards out of Arthurs Pass township. Worst Damage

The worst damage, Mr Young found, had been caused between the summit and Otira. At troublesome Candys Bend, where the road, was, built on loose shingle, about three chains of highway have disappeared. Lower down, an amazing sight awaited Mr Young. ■ The Otira river must have risen to phenomenal heights, for a concrete retaining wall on the outside of the road had been washed away, and about two chains of roadway cleaned out. Approaching the railway, Mr Young saw what he described as a unique washout. At some stage of the flood, the river had cut into the road, washing away about four chains and building up a great bank of shingle. Then some freak of the flood caused the stream to change its course to the other bank and scour a hole 15ft deep. Boulders Support Bridge The end of one approach to the Otira river bridge had been washed out in a curious way, he said. Huge boulders under the bridge itself had prevented a collapse of the bridge, but the approach had disappeared, had gone beserk, made a bee-line had gone bererk, made a bee-line for the Otira river, and washed away a big section of highway. “As it was much more important to open the road to Arthurs Pass from Christchurch and to Otira from Greymouth, men and machines were concentrated on these sections,” Mr Young said. “The Railways Department, which suffered heavily, especially between Otira and Jacksons, was lent equipment so that the restoration could be speeded up. On Monday, however, we took gear from these jobs and put them into the Otira Gorge, and by today, there should be three bulldozers at work.

No Definite Date

“It. is hard to say exactly when the road will be open. The concrete work which will have to be done at the point where the wall was washed out may take some time, and it will be at least two weeks before the road is open. “There are parts of the roadway where it is near the river, that will probably give trouble in future floods. The river has built up shingle nearly to road level and further washouts can be expected.” Meanwhile, motorists will have to go on using the Lewis Pass route to Greymouth, a distance of more than 200 miles, as against the 157 via Arthurs Pass.

Mr Young also inspected the badlydamaged Teramakau bridge at Greenstone, near Kumara. It had not yet been decided how to repair the 1160 ft structure, he said.