Superintended Building Of Big Dam In Andes

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30947, 31 December 1965, Page 1

Superintended Building Of Big Dam In Andes

Mr David Chapman, a Canterbury graduate in civil engineering. is home in Christchurch on leave after the completion of a big-hydro-electric and irrigation project m Argentina where he was superintendent of dam construction. On leaving the Univerity of Canterbury he went to England, joined Richard Costain Civil Engineering, and was engaged on motorway construction in Bristol and in London. The same firm received the contract for the Tucuman project in northern Argentina, 300 miles from the Bolivian border. This three years and a half job involved one major earth dam of 7m cubic yards and three minor darns totalling 500,000 cubic yards to build up a lake on the Rio Sail. ! Modern machinery was imported from England for the job, and 1500 local labourers were used.

Mr Chapman said the irrigation scheme would cover

about 175,000 acres and should have enormous potential in agricultural development. The hydro-electric scheme was relatively small, producing a useful 70m kilowatts a year. Tucuman was a city the size of Christchurch with a population of 300,000. The works project was 20 miles away in the foothills of the Andes.

A major difficulty at the outset, Mr Chapman said, was coping with the Spanish language. He had no knowledge of this on his arrival, but achieved working fluency on the job. “The possibilities for development in this area and many other parts of Argentina | are unbelievable,” Mr Chapman said. Tucuman was in 'the chief sugar-growing province, but there was scope for many other crops and industries. Much depended on effective leadership and organisation.

After leave, Mr Chapman will return to London to work in the head office of his company.