Dam construction almost complete

Press, 7 May 1987, Page 27

Dam construction almost complete

PA Dunedin Construction at Clyde of New Zealand’s largest concrete gravity dam is now three-quarters complete. First power is scheduled for early 1989, according to the Ministry of Works and Development project engineer, Mr Elwyn Hughes. The million cubic metre dam would be completed in late October next year. Lake Dunstan would take about three months to fill with water. Dam building is under the control of the Ministry on behalf of the newly formed Electricity Corporation. The biggest contractor working on the project, the Zublin-Williamson joint venture, had now placed more than 600,000 cubic metres of concrete, Mr Hughes said. This was additional to this 150,000 cubic litres

already poured by the Ministry, and meant the dam was 75 per cent complete. The Clyde project would initially produce 432 megawatts of power from four generating machines. This could be extended by another two machines in the future, increasing generating capacity to 610 megawatts. Mr Hughes said the $7OO million project had kept within the original estimate, adjusted only for inflation. The project was still using its peak workforce, with 1000 working on the Clyde site, and another 200 employed on other Clutha Valley development activities. The workforce was expected to remain at peak until the end of this year when the project would begin to wind down, -’i