EROSION ENDANGERS RAILWAY BRIDGE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 July 1935, Page 6

EROSION ENDANGERS RAILWAY BRIDGE.

GANGS BUSY WITH PROTECTION WORKS. POHANGINA RIVER WITHIN 20 FEET OF EMBANKMENT. At present the railway bridge over the Pohangina river at Ashhurst is the scene of considerable industry, gangs being busy protecting the structure from inroads being made by the river. During the past two or three years the Pohangma river has gradually been eating its way into the railway reserve at the Ashhurst end of the bridge and strips of a chain and sometimes more have been carried away. Just before the two recent floods, willows which had been put in to protect the banks were actually high and dry on the opposite side. On several occasions the railway gangs have been cutting and placing willows along the affected parts, anchoring them into the water with wires.

However, this has proved of little avail, for as fast as they are put in they have either been washed away or the river has cut in underneath. The two recent big floods have taken a large slice and made a right-angle turn within 10 to 20 feet of the railway embankment three or four chains from the Ashhurst end of the bridge, with the result that the department has now had to go to work in earnest protecting the approach to the bridge.

Old locomotive boilers and other great masses of ironwork have been tumbled straight off the trucks on the line into the water at the foot of the embankment. Loads of rocks are also being used to stem the approach of the waters. In addition there is a gang erecting a groyne of railway iron about two chains upstream with the object of shooting the water out from the endangered embankment. The fight is on and it will be interesting to see how the protection work acts as the river at the present time has a very big fall into the sweep along the reserve.