Filling Of Aviemore To Start Tomorrow

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31736, 20 July 1968, Page 1

Filling Of Aviemore To Start Tomorrow

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, July 19. The Electricity Department has decided to start filling Lake Aviemore on Sunday, after a heavy thaw in the snow which has covered the Waitaki River catchment for two weeks.

Heavy steel bulkheads will be dropped at the upstream entrance to the 1250 ft diversion tunnel tomorrow morning, and the water level will be raised by 40ft. This is expected to take about two days, during which a bridge and other plant used in sealing off the diversion tunnel will be shifted from the area. Lake Waitaki will then be replenished through the sluice gates at the bottom of the concrete dam before the water is raised to its final depth of 122 ft. The filling of the lake was delayed from last Tuesday because of the onset of cold weather and an expected increase in demand for power on the national grid, which would have required the full output of the Benmore station, above Aviemore. The new lake will cover 7000 acres and have a shoreline of 25 miles. This compares with the 30.5 square miles of Lake Benmore, which has a shoreline of 72

miles, and the smaller Lake Waitaki below. The first two 55,000 k.W. generators at Aviemore are ready for service and power should flow from the station into the national grid towards the end of this month. The other two generators will come into service early next year. The work force of 320 re-

tnaining on the project will continue but there will be a further gradual reduction The Budget announcement that $1,450,000 had been allocated to Upper Waitaki works could have an effect on further labour reductions. This sum is seen as the cost of starting the establishment of a village on the Twizel this year.