Hutt River Board

Hutt News, Volume 15, Issue 22, 29 October 1941, Page 5

Hutt River Board

gg ENGINEER'S REPORT | At Iftat week's meeting of the mutt .gtlver Board, the engineer, pit H.Sladden, reported that floods 9 Inches, 10 feet, and 10 ifiwt jS> Inches .occurred ■ on < Friday, peptember 26th, Tjt»u^djiy f 2nd Ocp|ober, and Thursday! JJtft jbctobajr, Iwspectlvely. The first was of short Muration, the river rising rapidly vfrom noon to 3 p.m. The peak was preached about 6 p.m.,, tind the river 'Was back to nearly normal by '.J a.m. on the 27th. The second was longer duration. The river bc*gan to rise about 4 a.m. and reached its peak about 10 p.m. It fell ! fairly steadily till noon of the 4th, J "When it was about 2 feet above norjmal. The last was of short duration. It began to rise at 3 p.m., reaching peak about 8.30 p.m., and it fell to 4 feet by 3 a.m. on the ;ioth. It rose again to 6 l'eet 6 inches at 11 a.m., falling steadily to nearly normal at 6 a.m. on the 11th. No serious damage occurred, though several washouts occurred and changes in the bed in various places occurred through deposit of shingle accumulations. : The reaches principally affected are Dickie's and Dr. Giesen's, Belmont Extension, and Johnson's and railway. A considerable amount of logs and debris from the higher reaches has been left in the bed and will en tail a good deal of work clearing it. A good deal of the willow planting in various beaches done this season has been buried or destroyed. Dickie's (left hank), now (iovernment owned, ajid l>r. Git-sen's (right bank). —This reach has altered considerably. The S bend has extended into both areas. These areas are low lying and comprise not very old river bed land that has built up. The ground consists of very loose sandy shingle and scours very easily. These are two properties where the depredations of cattle have for years prevented establishment of willow protection. The bend at Dickie's is in an old channel which years ago led through Dextor's down to, and across Mabey Road. The rescouring of this has brought about a recurrence of flooding through this channel, causing inconvenience to the land owners and damage to Mabey Road.

The bend at Dr. Geisen's is also in what is virtually an old channel. The tendency for this to scour cheated a potential danger that the main stream might cut into the old deep bend at Belmont Extension, where a good many years ago much trouble was experienced. Several months ago a substantial netted boulded groin was constructed at the lower end of Dr. Giesen's to counter this. This has functioned well, but the outer position has scoured and settled down, erosion having occurred still deeper into the above land.

Ik'lmont Extension (right bank), Hewer's (Muldock (left hank). — This reach is considerably improved. The various works carried out some months ago for channel control have effectively functioned during the floods, so that the set onto Belmont Extension lias been removed and the central channel developed. In the earlier flood some damage to the lower end of Belmont Extension protective work occurred and some further erosion occurred. Willow and cable protection has now been carried out and more fascining will be built on top of the previous, fascining behind the driven rails. ?

Johnson's and Railway (right hank). —At the upper end of Johneon's conditions are quite good and unaltered. Lower down the channel has moved to the right and taken away a good deal of the area that was building up outside the Railway Department's protective works and with it the willow planting that had not yet had tune to establish itself. There is a large amount of debris and partially buried logs in this reach which will have to be cleared when labour is available.

In Johnson's the willow planting carried out by the board in recent years and now becoming well established, should be lopped, but it is useless to do so as the land owner persists in running cattle there. In the past the board has spent considerable sums of money constructing netted boulder weirs and establishing willows. It is hoped that under the provisions of the new Soil Act there will be powers to control the destruction of protective willows that at present occurs through lack of co-operation by some land owners. Hutt Golf Links, lower end (left bank). —Some erosion has taken place in the gorse covered area and some willow plantation has scoured away by a temporary set of the channel. The area is an old loose shingle bank, and scours very easily. Protective Work Mow Melling Bridge.—This received a severe buffeting some damage. The fasclnlng hafe settled further, in doing its job and will be built up in conjunction with other repairs. There will always be trouble in this reach until such time as the Melllng diversion cut can be constructed. .