THE HIGHWAY ROUTE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 194, 18 July 1939, Page 6

THE HIGHWAY ROUTE.

DANGER OF FURTHER BLOCKAGE

Swept by one of the most torrential downpours of rain for several years, the open “toes” of the hillside on the edge of the road through the Manawatu Gorge on Sunday night began to disintegrate rapidly, and the highway was in a bad state yesterday. Even sections which had been fascined had subsided into mud and slime, while heavy falls of earth, each easily sufficient to bury a motor car, extended more than half-way across the road in places. Small rocks were continually railing at various points, and the face of the hillside showed signs of crumbling in several places, which gave indications of being likely to subside at any time. Conditions during the past week have been the worst since the extensive series of slips two years ago. It is estimated that some 6000 tons of mullock rock, earth and debris, as well as several big stones, came down on the Manawatu Gorge road on Sunday night. The worst trouble developed at 3 a.m. at what is known as the “slurry slip,” about midway through the Gorge, and a big fall came down, completely blocking the road. Tlie steam navvy was brought to the scene, and a track past it was cleared before midday yesterday. Men worked under rigorous conditions, a bitterly cold grrle sweeping through the Gorge for several hours until about 10 a.m. Snow fell to a depth of about two inches, this being only about the third time it had been seen on the roadway in a period of sixteen years. All day yesterday the snow lav on the high ridges immediately overlooking the Gorge. A DANGEROUS FISSURE. The “slurry slip” has given practically continuous trouble in bad weather ever since the hurricane in February, 1936, tore down a huge tree, and its uprooting opened a hole in the hillside. Now this is the starting point for shingle or rock slides which come down on to a Hat and accumulate there until the pressure of water forces them over the edge and they start a slide down the hillside which brings in its train hundreds or thousands of tons. Two or three years ago, at 1.30 a.m., a huge boulder weighing about ten tons came tearing down the hillside at this point and partly buried itself in the road. The threat of further trouble at tins point has now been aggravated by the discovery of a dangerous fissure arching round the hillside for a radius of several chains about 150 ft. up from the roadway and running practically parallel with the perimeter of the gap left by the series of slips at this point, where debris was still “creeping” and continuously on the move yesterday. Motorists will realise the danger which hangs overhead in the broken edge of the bluff when they learn that the fissure which has developed there is not merely a crack, but a clear gash some four to six feet < t lecp and

varying in width up to two feet. This portion will either crash down itself, or have to be removed sectionally later by workmen. Meanwhile it is likely to burst out into a big slip at any time, and it lias a long way to come down to the road. The whole point is very unsafe and constitutes a serious danger to traffic. Rock and rubble from the slip immediately beneath is being transported to the Ashh.urst bridge, where it is being used to widen the approaches from the Manawatu Gorge end. Men working up the face of the Gorge, holding a crowbar in one hand and on to a rope with the other, while a eomnanion watches for anv sign of general movement in the hillside, are doing so at considerable risk. There are indications of numerous seepages from creeks hidden in the bush.