TUNNEL THROUGH RIMUTAKAS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22661, 16 March 1939, Page 10

TUNNEL THROUGH RIMUTAKAS

ANNOUNCEMENT BY MINISTER FOR PUBLIC WORKS (PKBSB ASSOCIATION TBI.IGBAU.) • WELLINGTON, March 15. Survey work is being done as a preliminary to the construction of a tunnel it is proposed to pierce through the Rimutaka range. The Minister for Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, in an interview this evening, said that the actual construction work would not be begun until some of the present tunnelling jobs had been . completed, and the necessary mechanical equipment and experienced tunnellers could be transferred to the Rimutaka project. A survey over the top of the Rimutaka range, said Mr Semple, was an essential preliminary to the construction of the tunnel. The survey pegs would provide a means by which alignment would be maintained and centres would be checked with a theodolite during the tunnelling. “We are not going to buy any new tunnelling mechanism lor the construction of the tunnel through the Rimutakas,” said Mr Semple. In the meantime, he was looking into the latest tunnelling methods practised abroad, particularly in the United States, so that the most modern methods could be used when a start was made with the tunnelling. He was not altogether'satisfied that the methods at present in use in New Zealand represented the latest in underground work.’