LETTING OF CONTRACTS FOR PUBLIC WORKS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27592, 24 February 1955, Page 3

LETTING OF CONTRACTS FOR PUBLIC WORKS

bad to be weighed whether the speed of completing public by pnv^te contract, so that the work was productive within a comparatively short time, was to be preferred to the Ministry of Works completing the works directly at less immediate cost, but possible loss of productivity because of unavoidable delays, said the president of the New Zealand Institution of Engineers (Mr R. S Maunder) after a paper on the deviation had been presenKeller, of the Ministry of Works. Trentham, at ttie annual conference of the institution yesterday. Keller traced the general history of the deviation. A considerable section of the paper was devoted to the, construction of the Rimutaka tunnel, the centre of interest in the deviation. A paper on diamond drilling at Maraetai, with particular reference to the type of equipment used, the selection of bits- and drilling costs, was given by Mr R E. Hermans, of the Ministry of Works, Mangakino. Although diamond drilling was by no means a new technique in rock-boring, there seemed to have been a general reluctance to adopt it to any extent in New Zealand, said Mr Hermans. He thought the usual association of the word diamond with articles of considerable, value might have given the impression that diamond drilling was an expensive luxury, whereas the opposite invariably applied. \