20-FOOT hole in WELLESLEY STREET

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 133, 26 August 1927, Page 13

20-FOOT hole in WELLESLEY STREET

SEWER COLLAPSES “You get five minutes’ notice of • drain collapse that might cost anything round £1,000,” stated the Mayor at the last meeting of the City Council. Yesterday the council got one of these notices, but tha repairs are not expected to reach four figures. Early in the morning: there was a subsidence in Wellesley Street, and during the day a hole about twenty feet deep developed in the roadway, leaving one of the tramlines suspended In the air. A man-hole was being sunk in the road, and the hole developed from this. All inward traffic was diverted to Queen Street, and is continuing to use this route to-day, though huge wooden girders have been placed under the lines, and they are capable of carrying the trams. Gangs will work day and night on repairs until the sewer has been opened up gnd repaired. The Wellesley Street main sewer is one of the oldest in the city, and has probably done service for more than 60 years. It is built in brick, and is about three feet high. At the lowe«r end of the street, where the present trouble has occurred, it is about 20 feet underground. Trouble has occurred at various times during the past 25 years, since a road roller narrowly escaped, a huge hole appearing immediately after it had passed over a spot at the bottom end of the street. During recent years a deviation was made in front of the post office, and portion of the old sewer was sealed. The present break In the sewer is expected to be opened up by Tuesday.