TWO THOUSAND TONS

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12458, 28 May 1926, Page 6

TWO THOUSAND TONS

BIG SUP AT TAITA

ROAD OPENS TO-MORROW AN ALTERNATIVE ROUTE b urtLer details of the big hillside sup on tie Taita Gorge on Wednes* clay afternoon were supplied by Mr A. H. Benhara, engineer of the Hutt County, yesterday. He advised that the road would be cleared for light traffic on Saturday morning. The slip was a bad one and had sprawled over the road and into the river over a length of about fiftyyards, reaching about thirty yards up the hillside. At a rough estimate, there were from two thousand to two thousand five hundred tons of earth and rotten rock to be removed, a bigger job of that kind than had had to be tackled in the county for a long time post. The slip had also carried away telegraph lines and fences. Mr Benham stated that he had detailed all the available county men to the gorge, and the Public Works Department and Mr W. T. Strand, Mayor of Lower Hutt, had kindly made more men available, tile force ooing made up to about 30. SAFETY MEASURES Unfortunately, it was hardly feasible to arrange for adequate lighting, and consequently a night shift could not be worked, but the Hutt Valley Power Board had agreed to provido lighting for the barricades which would bo erected at Stokes Valley and the Silvcrstream overhead railway bridge, so that the load would ho safely closed to-night. He also stated that an endeavour was being made to obtain a mechanical digger, or diggers, but, at best, he did not think that the slip could be cleared before Monday. The Akatarawa road is also blocked, but the trouble there is Dot so serious. A slip of fair dimensions came down on Tuesday, and wet earth and rook have been dribbling down off and on since then. It is quite likely also that a certain amount will yet come down in the same .way in Taita Gorge. ALTERNATIVE ROUTE Though the main road is blocked, cars aro able to get through by a round-about route, service cars reaching Wellington this morning via the small bridge over the river near Wallaceville, the Moonshine road, and the steep road leading to Haywards, Lower Hutt, and Petone. The grades on this road are heavy, and the Haywards road is notoriously dangerous owing to its narrowness and bad corners. The detour, moreovei, means an extra run of thirty miles or thereabouts. There is another route, probably a "better one, via Johnsonville, Parematn, and Pahautanui, and then 'across country to the road leading again to the Wallaceville bridge.