Lowering Of Tunnel Between Rail-cars

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31588, 27 January 1968, Page 1

Lowering Of Tunnel Between Rail-cars

Sixty Railways Department employees will start at 11.30 tonight on the lowering of the Kaimata tunnel floor to allow international containers to pass through it.

From the time the Christ-church-Greymouth rail-car passes through the tunnel, about 16 miles from Greymouth, tonight the men will work nonstop on the job, which will involve lowering of the floor as much as 21 inches in some places, installing drainage pipes, compacting the foundation and relaying the line. The railwaymen hope to have the task completed by the time the GreymouthChristchurch rail-car reaches the tunnel on Sunday evening In case the job is not finished

on time buses will be ready to take the passengers to Otira. The resident engineer of the Railways Department at Greymouth (Mr W. J. H. Duckworth) said yesterday that the whole operation had been minutely planned on the “critical path” system. Every man in the party would know exactly what to do and when to do it, he said. There would be an extensive briefing before the work started. Loaders, bulldozers and cranes will be used. The men will be fed on the job from a mobile canteen.