WAITAKI POWER STATION

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25955, 8 November 1949, Page 4

WAITAKI POWER STATION

PROPOSED EXTENSION BORING ON OTAGO BANK No finality has been reached yet on the investigations of the site of the proposed extension of the Waitaki power station, the extension to house two 15,000 k.w. generators. Shafts and bores are still being sunk into the rock.

The proposed site of the additional power station is on the Otago bank ot the Waitaki river. The rock must be thoroughly tested before a definite decision to build the station is made. The rock was sound on the site of the main Waitaki station, which was completed in 1934, and it is not expected that any weaknesses to cause abandonment of the projected station will be disclosed.

The new station is expected to provide an additional 100.000,000 uflits a year for the main South Island electrical supply system. The investigation at the site is being carried out by the team of geologists, surveyors, and workmen wno have been carrying out investigations for the Benmore station, at Black Jack’s Point, further up the Waitaki river. Benmore is a long-range project. ‘ln capacity, it would be equal to Roxburgh. how designed to produce 340,000 k.w. It is unlikely to be begun until after the Roxburgh station is in operation. Because of the transfer to Waitaki of the investigation team, the preliminary surveys at the Benmore site to'determine the suitability of the country for the dam and power-house will be delayed and. from official statements, cannot be completed until about the end of 1950. The Clarence scheme another future, large-scale development—has not been abandoned by the Government. A report has been current that the geological report on the proposed site was strongly adverse. Surveys, however, have continued and the project is still on the waiting list. All the heavy parts of the generating equipment for the Tekapo station have now been transported to th? power house and the Bailey bridge which was built on the route from Fairlie to take the exceptionally heavy transport has been dismantled.

Good progress is being made with the building of the main earth dam up to the western wall of the spillway recently built at Lake Pukaki and the raising of the coffer dam to giv£ extra storage in the lake by the middle of February for next winter.