WORK DURING HOLIDAYS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29089, 29 December 1959, Page 11

WORK DURING HOLIDAYS

Waikato Power Scheme Staffs "The Press” Special Service ROTORUA, December 28. The earth dam at Ohakuri is now half finished. Some of the 35 men who worked over Christmas will continue packing core material into the dam. Fine weather is essential to its construction. A dry winter has already put work on the site months ahead of schedule. If it remains reasonably fine until the end of June, it is expected that the completion date will be well ahead of the original target of mid-1961. Much work remains to be done on the spillway. Most of the concreting has been done although the deck concrete has not been poured. Work on the powerhouse is going ahead. The No. 1 machine is in position and the Electricity Department will install turbines and generators early in the new year. Bulldozers dragging great hooks to loosen the earth have been circling the bottom of a giant cut in a hillside to excavate for an intake dam for Maraetai 11. Three-quarters of a million cubic yards of spoil have been moved to bring the dam down to the required level. Workmen have 130,000 cubic yards of core material to pack into the 90-foot earth dam at Waipapa. It is about 10 per cent, complete. The powerhouse is about half finished. At Aratiatia, workmen are excavating a pit for the surge chamber which will break the force of the water flowing from the dam if the machines in the 90,000 k.w. powerhouse are ever shut off. Preliminary work on the underground tunnel from the proposed dam is proceeding, and underground work on the tunnel itself should begin about April.