Dam Completed
(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 18. Work will be completed tomorrow on the Matahina earth dam across the Rangitaiki river. The dam project was ahead of schedule and should be producing power early next year, a Ministry of Works official said tonight.
Nearly 5 million cubic yards of rock and clay have been used itr the dam. It is 260 ft high, 1300 ft long, and nearly a quarter of a mile thick at the base. The official said the dam was the first of its type in New Zealand. It was unique because it had no rock foundation and was bedded in a trench dug into alluvial subsoil. Because it could be the prototype of a similar large dam to be built at Wanganui, careful recordings would be kept of pressures set up when the lake behind began to fill. Work at Matahina started three years ago. While the dam was being built the river was diverted through a 700 ft tunnel.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31142, 19 August 1966, Page 12
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165Dam Completed Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31142, 19 August 1966, Page 12
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