White elephant to come down

Press, 26 August 1977, Page 3

White elephant to come down

A white elephant which has stood idle on the West Coast for almost 10 years will soon disappear. The seven-storey briquetting plant at Ngakawau, near Westport, was built in 1964 at a cost of more than SIM and heralded as the answer to Christchurch’s air-pollution problems as a source of smokeless fuel. It was not. The high smoke and soot content of the material it produced created strong market resistance, and in the face of stockpiles of unsold briquettes, the plant was closed early in 1968, after only three years production. Since then the building has stood idle, in spite of strenuous attempts by persons seeking to have it reopen to produce briquettes of different “recipes.” But tenders will be

called in about two weeks for the dismantling of the building, made of structural steel and reinforced concrete and clad in aluminium. It will make way for coal-storage bins which are part of a $4.5M improvement of coal-hand-ling facilities near Westport. The Ministry of Works hopes to use the foundations of the briquetting plant for the

2000-tonne bins. According to the resident engineer of the Ministry at Westport (Mr E. G. Hansen), much of the material in the old plant can be saved. Dismantling of the plant is likely to start towards the end of October. As well as the 2000tonne storage bins, other developments at Ngakawau will be a crusher and separate receiving bins.