Machine saved in falling tunnel

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32613, 22 May 1971, Page 2

Machine saved in falling tunnel

<Neu> Zealand Preet Aesociatlonj TAURANGA, May 21. Tunnellers and construction workers fought non-stop for more than 16 hours to retrieve a $lOO,OOO tunnelling machine in the Lower Kaimai range in the Bay of Plenty when the tunnel began to collapse.

Mr P. J. Glanville, the managing director of Canadian Construction Company, Ltd, the major contractor on the Maungapapa power station project, which involves the tunnel, has expressed the company’s gratitude for the efforts made by the men in shocking conditions. The tunnel is being drilled as part of the Tauranga Joint Generation Committee’s power scheme for the Maungapapa station. Working at the end of a 1755 ft long shaft, a dozen men had finished the herculean task of pulling the machine 30ft back from the tunnel face to safety. Mr B. • Tyler, the tunnel

■ manager was in the shaft i when it started to collapse. , He said the first signs of i trouble were cracks opening i up in the tunnel walls and s more water coming from the i walls than usual. He said he ! decided immediately to get i the men and the machine back along the shaft to I safety. j About half an hour after i the first signs of the col- ■ lapse, there was a major fall. Material continued to fall t steadily and then came ani other big fall. Mr Tyler said that collaps- ■ ing material subjected the ■ machine to unusual stresses and damaged hydraulic fitl tings. Mr A. Coombes, the tunnel fitter, working under nearimpossible conditions, carried out repairs so that the machine’s power systems rould be used to help get it back along the shaft.