Making Benmore Link Safer

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30952, 7 January 1966, Page 10

Making Benmore Link Safer

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, January 6. T h e inter - island transmission line has been closed by the Electricity Department to permit engineers to lower earth wires along sections of the 335-mile link between the Benmore power station and the South Island terminal at Fighting Bay.

The general manager of the: department. Mr E. B. McKen-: zie, said yesterday that the; wires would be lowered in areas where they were consid-i ered to be a potential hazard to top-dressing aircraft. He expected the line to be. closed for about five weeks. . “But the work is being! staged so that should the line be required for transmission, we could bring it back into 1 use within four hours."

Mr McKenzie said the earth wires were aluminium and were lighter and stronger than the transmission lines. They were strung tighter between pylons than the curret-carry-ing lines. “This means that because of the greater sag in the transmission lines there is a considerable distance between them and the earth wires. Topdressing pilots, we are told, can easily see the transmission lines but find it difficult to sight the earth wires. “As a result we plan to sag the earth wires to run roughly

! parallel to the transmission lines. Pilots seeing the latter will know the earth wires are in about the same position and the danger of them striking the wires will be considerably reduced. “The work is only being done in areas where there is reported to be a considerable amount of aerial top-dressing activity,” Mr McKenzie said. While the line was closed structural engineers would take the opportunity to strengthen some plyons in the South Island which were con-

, sidered potentially dangerous ■ in gales. The fact that some were not as safe in high winds as first thought was revealed three years ago when a number of pylons about the Waitaki area collapsed in strong gales. Mr McKenzie said the power situation in both islands at present was extremely good. “Lake Taupo is nearly full and if much water flows into it we will have to let some out. Most South Island lakes are also full to the brim,” he said.