MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22375, 12 April 1938, Page 12

MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY

Meanwhile, the arrival on the various tunnel works of modern plant provides a guarantee that the- construction will be speeded up on both the northern and southern sections.

LINE NOW LAID TO HAWKSWOOD

EASY WORK AHEAD TO CLAVERLEY PROBLEM OF SEA PROTECTION ON COAST In July. 1938, seven months after, the present Government Was returned to office, the railway works were reopened. The gap between Parnassus and Wharanui was then 76 miles. The southern section of the work extends for 30 miles from Parnassus to the Kahautara-river, five miles south of Kaikoura. and includes the most difficult coastal section over the whole distance to be ultimately linked with the ©resent termini. Heavy constructional work is involved on the southern section* on which there are 16 tunnels, compared with six on the northern section to WharaniuV Theur total length is over two miles, the longest being the Amur! of 43 chains, while those on the northern section have a length of three-quarters of a » For four miles bast Parnassus, the piate-la&int has been advanced and the gangs are how working In the HaVkawood cutting, they bfilgest on any railway line hi New Zealand This cutting is, at its deepest point, 65 leet deep and it has a length of 50 chains. In au\ 340,000 yards of material were removed by this huge ctit and one of the big draglines engaged on this lob is this week being removed to the §ah*ltata irrigation work. awkswood, the platelayers will i be able to work uninterruptedly down to th*uConway bridge/ where all formatioßbls .reafly. ■-~~ ■■ ■._ :■■ ;■;■_;.- •vWnen the> line la constructed to the Conway, th* girders for the-bridge will be transported from Parnassus and exacted on the piles jonstructed. The completion of the bridge depends on the rail advancing to, Fet* niehurifc and once it is done the line will be built to Hundalee. Tha e*gi» users expect that the railhead will reach HUndalee by the end of the pre* Before "trains can run past Ferniehurst, ballasting and tidying up of the line Will b« necessary Is *** as Claverley. From the Conway bridge to Claverley, near the f the line for the' most part will run over fairly, flat country, on which only a few cuttings of minor size ate required. Heavy Engineering Beyond Claverley of engineering are ahead. First, there is the Amuri tunnel. On the mam trunk line from Bluff to PictonJt will-be the longeat tunnel horth of the Mihi■waka tunnel, near Dunedin. Work on it is proceeding apace, and, a few miles beyond it, workjiaajto be laoad. Ortie country from fast Oaro, where Ib^ih^ado^uartersfM. tee southern located, ta .the Kahautara river lalls t»tecipltodsW_ to tha sea, which breleto grandeur on the Ova* this stretch of Ave mfethe railway wfll run along steep sidling, thrdugh jtttnj i nels. out on to banks- in the sea and ' back tK~ctti* lace, : on which ntti*fe tret* ake-ake grow aWng'tfcis will, at parts, be built over *ocky beds en which the Pacific now CrasHteg.

Line Will Reach Hundalee This Year SIXTEEN TUNNELS ON SOUTHERN SECTION Comprehensive Survey of Progress Eleven miles of railway will open new country between Parnassus and the tentative railhead at Hundalee at the end of this year, according to Public Works Department expectations. The department has 500 men at work building the line between the present termini of Parnassus, in North Canterbury, and Wharanui, in Marlborough. Excellent progress has been made to date. The keystone of construction over the area through which the main trunk will pass is''the tunnel, 43 chains in length, near Amurl Bluff. This tunnel, it is expected, will not be finished before the end of 1940.

Measures are already in hand to protect both the highway and the railway from the forces of the sea. Fortunately, the protection work does not present the problems that would have to be faced if the coast were of sand. The heavy bouldering provides a natural and sure bade on to Which *poil will be deposited to form the deep foundation to the coastwise road, and, in parts, concrete blocks of 13 tons will be dropped down from the side of the road to prevent orosion. More than 100,000 yards of stone will be used ih this protection work. It will be obtained from the quarry nea* Goose Bay, which, up to the present, had not been able to produce to its limit, as the face overlooks the main highway, which is now being carried Sut to sea. In this locality .suitable stone can be procured only from the Goose Bay quarry. Once ; the highway is constructed, blasting will be carried out with more completeness to provide the necessary material for the new road and protectipn from the sea.

Machinery for Tunnelling Six tunnelling gangs are now working on the southern section and three more gangs will soon be employed. One of the difficulties on this type of Work had been the securing of men qualified in railway tunnelling. Miners are available: but it Is necessary that men with railway experience should be in every gang. Nearly all the equipment for the tunnellers-is now on the various sites. For many months, the tunnelling was delayed because of the shortage of plant. A full stock of compressors is on hand, and six tunnel scrapers, for "mucking out," are on the works. These machines are capable Of handling two and a half tons of spoil In two minutes and their use has introduced a change in construction methods, at the same time saving the workers much of the. laborious shovelling from the floor upwards, instead of a bottom heading, a. top heading is now driven, at the end of Which the line from, the scraper is secured, and the spoil Is fed into the scraper. Which drops the material -into trucks, under the old methods, the bottom heading was timbered and through it the spoil dropped to the floorVlrdm which it was lifted by the labourers. Through Amur! Bluff Of the 16 tUnnels on the southern section one of 165 feet at Claverley, the Srst shot of which was fired last July y the Minister for Public Works (the Hon. B. Semple) has been completed. It is one mile beyond the proposed Claverley station. The building Of the Amur! bluff tunnel is being done only from the northern end. At first, a gang was driving from the Claverley end, but swamp was struck and the Work was abandoned, since when the engineers have prepared designs for a reinforced section of tunnelling, of an additional length of four chains, for that end. .' • Highly satisfactory, progress under hand methods have been made by the tuhhellers working through the papa ahd sandstone formation from the Oaro end. The face of the tunnel there is high above the sea, and the tunnel has been driven ahd concreted for four and a half dhaihs. One scraper machine is working oh a cut a chain of so from Sle mouth, .and another Jis doing the eavy work inside the tunnel. Work Will be expedited soon, as ft locomotive fOr hauling the trucks to the cliff is bfeing landed at Lyttelton and a concrete gUtt IS to arrive, op the job short* ly.' This tunnel is unlikely to be cqnv' pjeted before the end of 1940. , Ah Interesting feature: of the tunnel tjOttStfuaiion is .that on bends the tunnels will be as/ much as one.foot from the verticalaccording to the curvature Of the track. There is only One bend—at the northern end—ln. the Amuri tunnel. A start has been made with the building of six other tunnels, one at Claverley and the others north of Oaro, Big Bridges

The fresh red paint on the-Leader bridge, just north of Parnassus', is the first Indication that the bridge work on the southern section is wei} in progress. The Leader bridge is an imposing and dignified structure, 724 feet in length, and construction trains are now running across it The two short concrete bridges between the Leader' and the Conway river have also, been built and the piles are noW down in the Conway to carry the superstructure of the bridge, Which is itactly the same length as,the bridge ever the Leader. Difficulty was experienced In sinking the foundations for the Conway bridge, which will probably be known as the Ferniehufst when the line is Operted, and a new cdurse for the river had to be cut by dragline to allow cdnstrUdtidri to proceed; ; Luckily, no floods Were enCOUntered ' during the pile driving operations. Once the:railhead is completed to .the Conway,'the"girders how lying in the Parnassusfailw&y yard will be transported to complete *he bridge of If) spans, each of 49 feet, across this rather difficult river. '_..> No Level Crossings

The track formation has been made tq the Conway, six milea from Pafnassua, and ddwh on the flat country far the further five miles to Hundalee. on the tftttioaite bank of which the main highway*un& Jta tortuous way. In thi* action of Ave mileJ, two concrete bjridgefc ate how bring con3fruct*& and the line will be able to take the ;plate laying..•;■::*v.: . Piltajare being csaat for the subway? w carry the highway under, the line at HUndalee. The earthwork how reachf* the M«d on the etfrst side; but * lirge quantity of fduhdatiph inatefteiWir yet to b?, d » «» e land-end i : :&^Zj,£i te%6ther bridge* have yet to be built on the southern section. The designs for these ttfe completed ahd the eonitmctton Will be tftkttfifi hand W *he e6uf*e of netseislty for pushing ahead the line to p»vide the import* Sninks. au m teim-*?* " beih« done withift the scheduled timed WSU?m cSitahia, bbyoftdWer* W Where i: vuduc _wiu tarry fte mmymtStt »bW tor vai%. jra* will also b* «oW •* *■