BIG SUBSIDENCE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21192, 15 August 1940, Page 9

BIG SUBSIDENCE

KING COUNTRY ROAD

WOULD CONTAIN A CAR UNMARKED AND UNGUARDED (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Thursday The touring manager of the Automobile Association (Auckland), Mr R. E. Champtaloup, reported to a meeting of the council last night that he had been approached regarding an unguarded hole in a King Country road, large enough to contain a motor-car, and measuring approximately 9ft in width, Bft in length, and 15ft at its deepest point.

Mr Champtaloup said the subsidence was on the Waihima-Kopaki road. An investigation showed two depressions where the road had apparently subsided, leaving the surface in an unsafe state, but the major blockage was additional to these and of a much more serious nature. The fact that the hole was entirely unmarked and unguarded in any way was regarded seriously by the council. The damage, according to Mr Champtaloup’s report, appeared to have been due to the collapse of the middle portion of a culvert 15ft below the roadway during the severe storms and gales of last February, causing a washout, and the subsidence of the road surface. It was decided to communicate with the local body controlling the road, and also with the Minister of Public Works.