HIGHWAY BLOCKED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21579, 25 August 1933, Page 10

HIGHWAY BLOCKED

FALL OF CLIFF FACE ROAD TO NEW PLYMOUTH HUGE BOULDERS COME DOWN Loosened by heavy rain on Wednesday night, the face of a cliff above tbo main Auckland-New Plymouth Road c on Boddy's Hill, near Piopio, fell out on to the road in a big slip yesterday, and the highway is completely! blocked. The Herald's Now Plymouth correspondent reported by telegraph last evening that the fall had occurred in the same place as the one which blocked the road a few weeks ago, in spits of the fact that the cliff was thought to havo been more or less consolidated after the last slip. Blasting Necessary Yesterday's slip was more formidable than the previous one, as the boulders are more massive and cannot be handled except by blasting. A gang of 10 men worked steadily in heavy rain throughout the day, but it was not ex* pected that the road will be open for traffic until to-day at the earliest. As a, result of the slip motor services were unable to maintain their timetables. The passengers in a service car bound from Now Plymouth to Auckland were delayed for nearly two hours while a narrow track was cut through the fallen rock to enable them to transfer to another vehicle. South-bound travellers also changed cars, vehicles from New Plymouth returning to that centre.

Owing to the narrowness of the road the ears on each side of the slip could not be turned in tbo vicinity, it being necessary to back them for a distance of about half a mile on each, side of the blockage. The through car -which left New Plymouth at 8 a.m. arrived at Auckland about 7.20 p.m., an hour and 20 minutes behind schedule time. Boulder 25ft. High

The driver of this vehicle* Mr. R. Hasted, described the slip as one of the largest he had seen. He said it was more severe than the one which occurred near the same spot some weeks ago. There was practically a sheer drop for nearly 300 ft. and a considerable portion of the cliff side had fallen away, the road surface being completely obliterated. One of the fallen boulders was particularly large, being possibly 25ft. in diameter.

Throughout the" morning rain fell steadily and the task of clearing away the blockage was most formidable. Although a gang of men from the Public Works Department was quickly on the scene the progress of their work was unavoidably slow, and Mr. Hasted did not think it likely that the road would be open for through traffic for some time. If unsettled weather conditions continued there was danger-of further slips occurring.