New Zealand Mail 27 Oct 1883

ACCIDENT TO THE WAINUIOMATA DAM

The heavy rains of last week did a considerable amount of damage to the Wainuiomata dam. The river itself had been in higher flood than had been known for some years, and what is usually a clear stream, easily fordable everywhere, had been for some days a torrent of thick, muddy water.

The flood reached its greatest height on Friday night last week, and it was then feared that the means for carrying off the stormwaters at the dam would not be sufficient to meet the emergency. These fears proved only too true, and about 2 a.m. on Saturday morning, the water was flowing over the concrete dam, over which, when it is finished, it is purposed that the surplus waters shall escape.

The filling-in, however, at its back had not been finished and had not received its coating of boulders set in cement. Consequently, it is gone, and the place where it was is as clean as when the river ran unmolested through its channel. A large quantity of the concrete dam itself is also gone, and it will take several weeks to repair the damage done in a few hours.

Besides the washing away of the filling-in and concrete work of the dam, about a chain of the concrete wall that faces the natural plateau, which here projects nearly across the riverbed, has succumbed to the force of water in spite of the strenuous efforts that were made to save it.

Whilst the men at the back were endeavouring to stay it in every possible way that ingenuity could suggest, it came in on them with a crash, and it is fortunate that no bad accident resulted. As it was, we believe that Mr Bailey, the contractor, received some slight injury.

One day’s work would probably have been sufficient to fill in the space at the back of this wall, and it appears to have been simply carelessness to have left this work undone.

The flood and its consequences will not necessarily delay the filling of the pipes, which at present is awaiting the fixing of a patent valve at Petone, a few days’ work only, but at the same time, it may be considered unwise to allow the dam to be filled again until the repairs are made and the work is complete.

The loss occasioned by the accident will, we believe, mostly, if not entirely, fall upon the shoulders of Mr Bailey, the contractor.