Benmore Hydro—IV Township Will Have Population Of 5000

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28492, 23 January 1958, Page 14

Benmore Hydro—IV Township Will Have Population Of 5000

[By a Staff Reporter of "The Press**}

Otematata, the official name for a telephone office located in North Otago on the dusty, windswept south bank of the Waitaki river between Kurow and Omarama, will become a familiar name in the next few years. It will be the name for a new town about the size of Westport built solely to support the construction of the huge Benmore hydro-electric project three miles upriver.

Otematata will have an estimated peak population of 5000 men, women, and children, who will have solid homes and not huts to live in. There will be 33 shops, and schools, churches, and sports grounds. The Licensing Control Commission has granted a publican’s licence and construction of a hotel with a minimum three-star grade standard of accommodation will begin shortly. Paved streets and wide grass verges planted out in shrubs and trees will be the setting for nearly 1000 houses for married construction workers and their families. Already the Waitaki Power Board has run lines from the Waitaki station to the site of the proposed town for a power supply. (First electricity from Benmore is unlikely before mid-1965.) Single Men's Quarters

Single men will have separate quarters, which will be divided into four big camps. In all there will be 850 huts, with four big community diningrooms and kitchens. The first of the camps should be ready this month. The works establishment will be a village in itself, with project offices, administration blocks, stores, and In addition to the construction town, there will be a permanent village for the employees of the State Hydro-electric Department, who will run the Benmore station when it is completed. This will not be built until after 1961. Cement Silos

Although the project will have an earth dam, the amount of cement needed for Benmore is tremendous. It will be railed inland and hauled in bulk at the Kurow railway station. Two 500ton silos will have to be built at the station and as trucks bring in the cement it will be elevated into them. Also at the Kurow yards will be hewly-constructed bulk fuel tanks to supply the heavy earthmoving equipment bulldozers, scrapers, draglines and trucks—with oil and petrol. The size of the project and the heavy equipment that will have to be taken in will mean road strengthening and reconstruction of at least three bridges. In the Otematata township there will be 15 miles of new roading. It is essential that the existing highway from Kurow to Otematata be improved and old, shaky bridges be renewed at an early date.

A 150 ft Bailey bridge that can take 58-ton weights has been erected over the river at the dam site. Visitors' Road The Ministry of Works says it will construct a road from the main Kurow-Omarama highway to a vantage point at the ctem works where visitors may watch operations. No visitors will be allowed on the construction site during operations. * At Roxburgh, visitors . often numbered as many as 500 a day and similar numbers are expected at Benmore as .. construction Approximately 100 Ministry of Works men and contractors’ employees are ‘ working at Benmore this month. In the construction township 60 houses for staff and workmen are expected to be ready by the end of May. At this time a social hall. 13 shops and other amenities will also have been built. After May, houses will be moved from Roxburgh at a steady rate to the Otematata site and by the end of the year it is hoped to have 400 houses and 450 single huts ready for occupation. (To be concluded)