Tuesday 7 February 2012

Manawatu Gorge Slip

The Manawatu Gorge links Hawkes Bay and the East with the Manawatu and the West of central part of The North Island.

Last year a landslip closed the road and rail line through the gorge.

Yesterday's New Zealand Herald conveyed the following news:
The New Zealand Transport Agency announced today that the main route between Manawatu and Hawke's Bay would stay shut because of the amount of slip debris that needs securing and clearing.

Palmerston North state highways manager David McGonigal said although crews were making outstanding progress, there was still a lot of work to be done.

"We believe this is the largest slip ever to occur in New Zealand. We certainly can't find anything comparable ... It is a very complex slip and the challenge comes from the size of it and the environment we are having to work in. We are up against mother nature, this is what she has thrown at us."

Mr McGonigal said crews are working seven days a week.

"The volume of work we have to get through is huge and we realise it will beat least the end of June before we can reopen the Manawatu Gorge.

"However, this is weather-dependent. Summer hasn't been kind to anyone and we cannot work up there when it is wet as everything just turns to mud and the machines slide around which is dangerous."








It looks serious and it is serious.  It is also swallowing large amounts of money and men and machinery.  So I was little surprised when the local MP implied (in fact I think he said) that not enough attention was being given to the problem which is costing the local economy in Woodville a lot of money in passing trade.  I've lived professionally with politicians most of my working life and understand that they feel they have to say things just to keep their electorate happy.  This seems to be a remarkable piece of silliness though and creates bad feeling with the workers who are doing a remarkable and potentially highly dangerous job to clear such a massive earth movement.

10 comments:

  1. Wow! We recently had a landslide which took out part of a road and damaged three houses on the west side of Lake Sammamish. Fortuntely no one was injured, but the road will be closed for at least another two months. This slide looks infinitely worse, and harder to deal with. It's amazing, isn't it, what curves Mother Nature can throw us mere mortals!

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  2. That is an impressive slip. When I think of how long it took to repair the itty slip we had on our road last year, I dread to think how long that one will take to fix.

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  3. I hadn't realised quite the extent of this one... Enlightening post Geeb.

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  4. That's a big landslip. I can well imagine that must take time to "fix". And if I needed to use that road I certainly wouldn't want them to do a sloppy job of it...

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  5. Wow. It looks scary and exciting. Ah as for the politician, nobody's stopping him from working hands on fixing it! :) Cheers!

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  6. I'm only able to access this on my phone right now at tiny size and half downloaded images, so will catch up with you later! But I wanted to say thanks for passing on the comment fromyoyr friend in Glasgow. I tend to forget there are readers who don't comment or follow and it is nice to know they exist Cheers Jenny

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  7. Thanks for your comments. It is a truly monumental task that the highways authority is facing.

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  8. Ah well. If you and I were to compile a book of silly things said by politicians we have known the publisher would have to have a lot of paper to hand!

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  9. I always hated driving the gorge when I lived in Palmie.... staggered at the size of the slip seen in the picture - wow!

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