Transit National Office
Media Release
25 August 2004

Manawatu Gorge likely to be closed all day

The Manawatu Gorge linking Woodville and Palmerston North on State Highway 3 is likely to remain closed for the rest of today, Wednesday 25 August.

The highway was closed around 7am this morning after a large slip at the western end of the gorge dumped some 2000 cubic metres of debris on the road.

Transit New Zealand area engineer Maurice Mildenhall said the slip was quite high up the cliff face and small rocks were still falling, making it difficult for contractors to clear the debris and assess the stability of site.

He said it was unlikely the route would re-open today.

“Transit and its contractors are working hard to get traffic moving through the gorge as soon as possible. But at the moment the situation is very fluid and it’s too soon to tell when it will be safe for the road to be opened.”

The slip is a new site further west than the slips that closed the gorge after major storms in February and was much less severe, Mr Mildenhall said.

“The slip is not too surprising given the extremely heavy rain that hit the Tararua region last week. This was on top of an extremely wet summer and a lot of rain this winter. Often slips come away after sustained periods of wet weather.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>