MANAPOURI DATE DOUBTFUL

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30982, 11 February 1966, Page 3

MANAPOURI DATE DOUBTFUL

(N.Z. Press Association) INVERCARGILL February 10. Will the Manapouri power scheme’s Simile tail-race tunnel be ready for operation by early 1969? This question is troubling officials as they view the progress of the tunnel to date. The nearly £lO million contract is already far behind

early schedules (January 1, 1968 was the original completion date in the contract). The latest schedule calls for the completion of the contract in three stages: (1) Completion of the driving of the tunnel by June 15, 1968. (2) Completion of the lining of the 30ft diameter tunnel by October 1, 1968. (3) The total contract, including the 3600 ft-long outlet channel, to be completed and ready for operation by early 1969. 1

According to the latest figures released by the Government’s consultants on the £6O million power project, the Bechtel Pacific Corporation, the tunnel has been driven 10,098 ft. Figures supplied by Bechtel show that during 1965 the tunnel was driven 5887 ft—an average of about 117 ft a week. Workers encountered serious water problems in the tunnel and machinery breakdowns and union trouble also contributed to some slow periods. i Still remaining to be driven

is 19,152 ft, and to maintain schedules the weekly tunnel progress rate will have to be 128 ft Tunnellers are still expirencing serious water problems in the tunnel. Progress last week was only 85ft and more than 7 million gallons of water had to be pumped out each day. Although an increase in the average driving rate of only 10ft a week does not appear much with further water problems likely to be encountered could prove too much for the contractors. Utah-Williamson-Burnett.