ARAPUNI WORKS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 10213, 25 October 1929, Page 3

ARAPUNI WORKS

REFERENCE IN PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT. The Minister of Public Works, Hon. E. A. Eansomi, in referring to tho Arapuni hydro-electric works in . the Public Works Statement, says: There was an expenditure of £431,981 in connection with this cchtime during the year, of which £163,148 is in connection with the headworks and power-station, £86,669 in connection with substations in various places, and £143,469 represents interest and miscellaneous capital charges on. portions of the scheme not in operation. Of the total of £431,981, £160,676 has been transferred to the Horabora operating account.

Work on tire power-station, the erection of which was taken over from the contractors at the end of 1927, has been pushed on, and power- was made available, from, the first 15,000 kw. unit on the 4th June about seventeen months after the work was taken over. A second unit has just recently been completed, and it is hoped to have the third unit in operation before the end of the year. Certain grave allegations as to the safety of the dam were made and given mudh publicity just prior to my taking over the; portfolio of Public Works. I had most careful inquiries made into all the. points raised, and found that there was no cause for apprehension whatever. The programme provided in the original contract called for completion of the power-station at practically the same time as the dam. Owing tp the delay in completion of the power-house, which, has been mentioned in this and former Statements, the full flow of the; river has been running over the spill-way-weir and the channel between that structure" and the original river course for a. period of over eighteen months. Considerable erosion has taken place in the old channel some 15 to 20 chains 'below the overflow-weir, and has been causing some concern. This tendency to erode will, of course, bo considerably' reduced as more and more water is taken through the power-house for power generating purposes. Meanwhile, and as an emergency measure to reduce the flow passing over the waterfall where the damage has bean, occurring, the Department has arranged to put in two of the future. penstock tunnels in advance of normal requirements, and to me thorn to bypass sufficient water to enable protective works to be; put in on the overflow channel. Contracts have been let for the nenessary pipes and nozzles and the excavation of the tunnels is in hand. Three shifts are being worked in order to have the work completed at the earliest possible date.