POWER FOR THE WEST COAST

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21991, 15 January 1937, Page 10

POWER FOR THE WEST COAST

Transmission Line Over The Ranges CONSTRUCTION TO BEGIN SHORTLY It is expected that it will not be long before the Public Works Department is in a position to have work started on the construction of the high-power transmission line connecting the West Coast with the Lake Coleridge-Waitaki generating system. Three survey parties have been working for months on the necessary surveys, and although no indication can yet be given of the date they will complete their task, it is stated officially that they have made excellent progress. Apparently once the difficult section over the ranges in the Arthur's Pass area is completed, the survey itself will be virtually finished and-plans and specification ready for drawing up.

The scheme, which will cost approximately £165,000, is one of the most ambitious of its kind undertaken in the Dominion. The line, entering the high country near Cass, must cross over mountains and wide rivers, and then down the precipitous countryside • into the West Coast, where the power it will carry will work big gold dredges and at the same time augment the existing commercial and domestic supply there. In time, it is visualised, the line will supply power for the whole of a highly productive area from South Westland to the Buller. A double circuit 66,000 volt line will cross the mountains, via Cass, Arthur's Pass and Otira, carrying power which West Coast people expect will play the major part in one of the biggest gold-dredging booms in the history of the Dominion. Work Well Advanced The survey parties are working on both sides of the mountains and their work is so far advanced that already material for the construction of the line is being conveyed to central points where work will be started. Contracts have been let for pile-driving necessary in planning for the crossings of the Mingha and Waimakariri rivers, and plans are being made for the erection of the steel towers which will be necessary on some sections of the line. The surveyors, who have often been hampered by difficult weather, have recently been working in country with a local nomenclature indicating the rough conditions they have contended with. The line must go either over or near Mount Misery, for instance, and another important geographical point in the survey is Mount Horrible. Altogether it will have a total length of 80 miles. Not all of that distance has had to be surveyed; but even where the route parallels the railway line, the power cannot be taken through tunnels. It must go over them, and in the section of country approaching Arthur's Pass, where tunnels are frequent, new surveys have been necessary. However, although there has been more delay than was expected, it appears that the line will be completed in the 18 months which was originally allowed by the department. All the work is being treated as urgent and the construction will probably be done in sections to allow speedier completion. Use of Power For Tunnel The transmission line will pass almost exactly over the Otira tunnel, and its proximity to Arthur's Pass has led to the suggestion that the power could be used for the tunnel. This development is being seriously considered by the authorities, it is stated,, for although it would necessitate abandoning the power-station at Arthur's Pass, the use. of the Coleridge-Waitaki power would be more economical. The present generating plant at the Pass would be used as a stand-by.