Tangiwai memorial protection work to cost $55,000

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 654, 17 September 1996, Page 4

Tangiwai memorial protection work to cost $55,000

P lans to build a "rip rap" wall to protect the Tangiwai Disaster Memorial site has the support of the Waimarino Community Board, over the cheaper option of moving the memorial to safety. The memorial site, including the memorial itself and a toilet block, is under threat from being washed away by the Whangaehu River. Ironically, Ruapehu lahars have led to the erosion which threatens the memorial to the victims of the Tangiwai Railway Disaster which occurred after a lahar took out the railway bridge. The alternative, to move the memorial and the toilet block to safer ground, is estimated at $40,000. But given the historic nature of the memorial, which has been declared an historic site, sees the Waimarino Community Board

lean towards supporting the protection works option, estimated to cost $55,000. Winstone Pulp International have offered to donate sufficient large rocks from a nearby site to carry out the work and in return the wall would incorporate the mill' s outfall. The board heard that while the erosion is an inevitable threat, there is a layer of soft rock protecting the site in the mean time, so that the work was not as urgent as first thought. Board member Doug Bennett said the remains of one of the carriages from the disaster was buried under the memorial plinth, and that it was possible that unrecovered bodies from the train were also buried in the area. For these reasons he favoured the option of protecting the present site, rather than moving the memorial.