Mangamahu isolated after bridge collapse

STORM DAMAGE: FARMER Alistair Polson watched in disbelief yesterday as the bridge linking Mangamahu with the outside world crumbled and collapsed into the Mangawhero River.
The Ngaturi bridge is the latest casualty of the vicious storm that battered the Wanganui, Rangitikei and South Taranaki districts last week and paralysed many rural communities.
Mr Polson told the Chronicle he and his wife Bo were going to shift cattle when they came across the bridge at 8.45am. The Ngaturi bridge is about 40 kilometres north-east of Wanganui.
"The road had dropped and we could see the bank was going [down] then," he said.
Mrs Polson stopped on one side to warn traffic while Mr Polson crossed over to get some cones to mark the road. Moments later the bank gave way and plummeted into the river ? and took the bridge with it.
"It was frightening?.there was a lot of noise, crashing and banging and steel snapping," Mr Polson said.
"I've never seen anything like it except in movies."
He said it was lucky the bridge didn't collapse earlier when it was still dark because traffic could have gone with it.
The collapse took no more than 30 seconds and it would have been minutes only from when they first noticed the bank slumping.
"My main worry was the power lines coming down. We didn't want live power lines on the road," Mr Polson said.
With the bridge gone Mangamahu is isolated.
"The valley is isolated. The only access would be through Te Rimu Rd (very much a secondary road that connects with the Parapara highway, which is also closed)," he said. He planned to organise a boat to get people across.
"The issue will be with getting wool and stock out," he said.
It's the second brush with Mother Nature the Polsons have had in as many years. Their Mangamahu home was destroyed in the February 2004 storm and yesterday he said he didn't want to be too close to the river in future.
Wanganui District Council infrastructure manager Julian Reweti said an Emmetts crane operator had a lucky escape with the collapsed bridge.
"We had planned to start clearing debris about 9am," Mr Reweti said.
The crane would have been on the bridge at the time of the collapse but he was delayed by an hour.
"He's feeling very lucky and is off to buy a Lotto ticket." Mr Reweti said it wasn't the debris in the river that caused the collapse.
"The bank is just saturated and started slipping away and has taken the bridge with it."
Council staff had been conducting an aerial survey of the area yesterday morning to survey the damage to rural roads. "This is an absolute major. We were all ready to wind down and concentrate on the welfare side of things and then I got the phone call ? this is a different ball game," he said.
When the Chronicle visited the site shortly after the collapse the bank on the Wanganui side of the river was also beginning to slump with cracks appearing in the ground. The Emmetts Civil crane operator who narrowly missed the collapse said he was pretty relieved not to have been there.
"They had only just told us about it. It wouldn't have been nice," the man, who didn't want to be named, said.
Council emergency manager Max Benseman said power poles associated with the bridge fell into the river, cutting power to some parts of Mangamahu.
Power was to be restored by late yesterday.
Mr Benseman said civil defence engineers had examined an alternative route via a private farm track but considered it too dangerous.
Plans were under way yesterday to deliver supplies to isolated Mangamahu residents.
Mr Benseman was unable to say last night how long it would be before bridge access was restored.