Rocks ...

One of my top European correspondents sent me these photo's of a rock fall.

The activity in front of the fire engine looks serious to my eyes.


I googled the sign, did a bit of detective work and found this in the archives of the Tapei Times
Switzerland
Rock slide kills two
A rock slide hit several vehicles on a major north-south highway through the Swiss Alps early on Wednesday, killing two people, police said. The highway was blocked on the northern approach to the St. Gotthard tunnel, a major route linking northern Europe with Italy, state police said in a statement. About 60m3 of rock fell on the highway near the town of Gurtnellen, hitting a German-registered car traveling south and two goods trucks which were parked in a rest area on the northbound side, police spokesman Herbert Planzer said. The car's occupants -- a married couple from near Pforzheim in southwest Germany -- were killed. The two truck drivers survived the rock fall, although rocks tipped one of the vehicles over.

Meanwhile we have been working in a cutting.

No big rocks thank goodness but it looks a bit dodgy up there ...

Thanks Ersatz

Damocles Rock

This is the slip that came down last night.

We have been watching that rock for years, it hasn't moved.

Last night it did, with it's neighbours and the area above it.

It was eerily quiet at home last night with no traffic. We want to get a look in daylight and see that nothing else looks likely to come down before letting traffic through.

Something like that falling on you would ruin your day....

You Asked For It...

I knew I was tempting fate...

The phone goes about 7p.m. "Slip at Mangaotaki"

I trundle off into the dark, and this time am confronted with a big slip, complete with boulders bigger than cars. One of them has punched a big crater into the seal and is embedded in by nearly a metre.

The panic button is pressed.

The road is closed, diversions put in place using local back roads that are pretty dodgy, and machinery is rounded up from all over.

I have just staggered in, and have a blurry photo of a rock.

The road is now open, as work continues with heavier machinery, and a relief crew.

Amazing actually. When I first saw it I couldn't imagine we could get a lane open before dawn.

I'm away to my bed...

A car-breaking rock, part of a slip I discovered early this morning. Then it was all hands to the potholes. I reckon we shovelled 5 tonnes of premix into holes today. So all you get is a crumby photograph. I must away to the couch.

Hard Rock

We have had a few slips over the last few days.
A slip is usually a soft muddy thing if you have misfortune to suddenly arrive on one in the middle of a rainy night.
This one was very hard. It came down in "Downers Cutting" in the Uruti Valley.
If you hit one of these boulders, the boulder would win.
Our front end loader was struggling to lift them, and even the short drop onto the tray causes an almighty bone jarring crash. You soon learn to get out of the truck, or you get fired into the roof.
They fell from over 50 metres, off a steep bank.
Some time ago in the same spot a fully laden semi trailer hit a similar mudstone boulder at 3 a.m. in the morning.
It tore the whole front suspension out of the truck, which then careered across the road and through a paddock, nearly ending up in a river.

Damocles Rock

We keep an eye on this rock. It is about the size of a full sized billiard table, and would be a metre or more thick. I would guess it would weigh something like 8 tonnes. When it does let go, it will end up on the road. Engineers reckon it is pretty safe, but we give it a wide berth. We have to wear hard hats when working in an area like this where there is a risk of falling rocks. At night, clearing rocks and debris off the road, you feel pretty vulnerable. A big rock fall here would be very scary. Of course a hard hat is pretty bloody futile too. When you are called out to "rocks on the road" in this area you never know if they will be football sized, or football field sized. I have been lucky so far, the biggest about the size of a school desk and I could drag it off the road with my truck.
Rest Area 300m