Dominion 05 May 1925

STUCK IN FORD

FIRST LOAD OF ORONGORONGO PIPES

HEAVY JOB FOR LORRY CREW

After nearly ten months’ delay, the first load of pipes for the Orongorongo water main were discovered on the bush track leading from the Morton dam to the tunnel mouth on Saturday morning.

What happened was that the first three pipes (each 25 ft. in length and weighing about 15 cwt.) left the Wellington Steel Pipe Works at Petone at about 3 p.m. on Friday, stacked on a brand-new six-wheeled motor lorry. After negotiating the Wainui hill carefully and successfully, the lorry passed through the lower reservoir reserve at 5 p.m., after which night and the bush enveloped it and its load.

The lorry did not emerge into the reserve by the lower dam until shortly before midnight. After negotiating the many dangerous curves on the Wainui road with small difficulty, trouble awaited the lorry on the bush road leading from the Morton dam to the tunnel mouth.

There are two fords on this forest-encompassed road, one at the foot of the track almost on a level with the surface of the dam, and the other just below Semple’s camp. The latter was formerly spanned by a rough bridge, but December’s floods carried the structure away. It was in this ford that the heavy lorry stuck.

The stream was running high, and heavy rain had fallen during the afternoon. As no progress upward could be made, there was only one thing to do — to dump the load and back out.

Pipes weighing three-quarters of a ton each are not easy objects to handle in the dark, in the heart of the bush, and the job of getting them over the side to a position of safety without injury to man or lorry, was no light one.

As a matter of fact, it took some hours, and no men in the district were more tired than those concerned when they reached the Hutt somewhere about 2 a.m. on Saturday.

Under the terms of the contract, all pipes have to be delivered in working hours, except with the permission of the engineer, when all extra cost entailed has to be borne by the contractors.

In this case, no notice of intention to deliver was given, and therefore no preparation was made to receive. The three pipes mentioned still lie fifteen chains from the tunnel mouth, and will have to be removed before other loads can proceed up the bush track.