A BIG SLIP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 July 1939, Page 6

A BIG SLIP

IN MANAWATU GORGE.

TRACK CLEARED FOR TRAFFIC.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

PALMERSTON N„ July 9.

■ A big section of earth and rock, which had been threatening to slip for the previous twenty-four hours, came down in the Manawatu Gorge late yesterday afternoon, blocking all traffic for some hours. A track was cleared over the slip this morning, and traffic was again able to use the road, though caution was necessary. The slip came down about half a mile from the Ashhurst end of the gorge, and it was part of a section of the hill face that had been long regarded as dangerous by the workmen engaged on that section of the highway.

The imminence of the slip was first noticed by a workman on Friday afternoon, when he heard boulders rolling in the scrub on the hillside at the rear of the slip. Investigations resulted in the location of a crack at the rear of the rock face on formation covered with scrub and small trees. The creakof the rock could be heard distinctly.

Following the discovery of the threatened slip no time was lost in posting warning notices and lights, and workmen were on guard at each end of the threatened slip till it came down

Mr W. Brockie, foreman of the Public Works Department gang in the gorge, said the section of the highway where the slip occurred had been giving trouble for the past six or seven years. A big boulder weighing about ten tons, had come down at the spot about two years ago. Luckily it just after 1 o’clock in the morning, when there was little traffic moving. Practically every winter workmen had had to sling ropes from the rock face in order 1o remove loose metal that threatened to fall on the road.