GAPS IN HIGHWAY?"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18496, 5 September 1923, Page 8

GAPS IN HIGHWAY?"

... • ' • -T _ CANTERBURY TO BLENHEIM, BRIDGE'S NOT YET RESTORED,' ' AFTERMATH OF THE FLOOD/ [it* TELEGBAPH.— COREE*PONDEtt% 1•• CKtnSTCHUKCH. Tuesday ': ' From Blenheim to Christchurch ? hardlV ;: ' a bridge stands complete, and no sin i •• $f' motor-car can accomplish the whcle ion* ' ney. The Clarence River swirls past th' spot where a mighty bridge spanned it, * waters, and no car has yet been devistd r which could dive through t)he flood. Th slightest fresh in the other rivers mafe" them impassable to the motorist, whll o portions of the old roadway are blocy^' : by hundreds and hundreds of tons of earth, stones, and fallen trees. j This devastation and chaos were wrought by the great floods in May last,' and " though over three months have elapsed' the bare piles of bridges protrude drun! kenly from tie river-beds, and the timber lie to mark the highest point? reached by the flood. It will be 12 months, per haps many months more, before' tl« route is fully restored. Local bodies so far have been largelv concerned in restoring the roadway, of the damaged bridges as yet are an. .: touched. Yet the service cars daily ma ]j a this trip, or rather they do when coa. c'litions are favourable for the connection has been broken several times since thi floods through freshes in the rivers, *n, B inexperienced or nervous motorist would be well advised not to take his car over this route until the work of restoration is further advanced. In any case, the Clarence is likely '! be impassable for traffic for many months. Operations have not yet been ; started in restoring the bridge.