TUNNELLING IN NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 149, 23 March 1928, Page 12

TUNNELLING IN NEW ZEALAND

Sir, —A friend has sent me Mr. Furkert’s reply to the remarks I made in the course of an interview when I was in Wellington. I would let the matter go had Mr. Furkert not impugned my veracity. Let me tell you what actually happened at Auckland. Before 1 left New Zealand, Mr. Edward Knapmau (former engineer in charge of the trans-Andes tuunels) and myself went through the Auckland tunuel. Passing along on the “highline," a raised passage, we noticed a survey party in the "finished” tunnel below. I asked Mr. Packwood, the engineer in charge of the tunnel, what they were doing: giving centre line or what? lie replied: “They are cross sectioning for clearances." To put it in plain words: They were seeing how much room there was for a train to go through after the tunnel was finished and concreted. Sic! I have remarked about the system of timbering. The method followed is called "spiling”; it is only used in unsafe ground and allows of a very limited progress, in fact, only by inches. But, to our astonishment, when we reached the place -where concreting was to be done the men had. stripped over twenty feet of tunnel, removing in this “dangerous ground" every stick of timber and working in it without any apparent fear. Am I right in saying they had pulled the engineer’s leg?. Now let us come to the comparative costs Mr. Furkert mentions. He gaily mixes up small narrow gauge tunnels, double track American tunnels with their 4ft. Sin. gauge, the Continental trains with a similar width, with the New Zealand gauge of 3ft. 3in. Strange to say, he even gives wrong figures for the Otira Tunnel, which did not cost forty pounds a foot but fifty-four pounds, and had to be finished by American engineers The largest tunnels I have been on, as regards cross-section, the largest in the world, the Khandala tunnels, 36it. wide, are being constructed under_ semimodern methods lor a price of 550 rupees a foot, or forty-two pounds six shillings a foot, in a district with a Tainfall of 2<>o inches a year. As regards the Tawa Flat tunnels, the first one of these ■ has a bottom drift under construction which is not only dangerous, it is not properly timbered, but also uneconomical, and the continuation of it will lead to the same conditions as in Auckland. As regards the time limit I hope that Mr. Furkert will keep to it- I. do not remember having heard people in New Zealand tell mo that the Public Works Department was a standard tor speed. Finally, mav I suggest that a statement: "The tunnel was of secondary importance, so time was nd factor,” sounds very strange. in the mouth of the chief of a Department which disburses such huge sums of the taxpayers' money. Any business man will know that there are such things as "overhead” and other capital charges which go on whilst some work is in progress, and it is certainly no economy to drag it out. Mr. Furkert asks why I did not take on his contract, and make a profit of fifty per cent.? . Number one. because I am convinced that all the nice figures he quotes would not hold water should a proper accountant check them. I have such an expense account of his Department in my possession. It omits such charges as depreciation, overhead from main office, etc. Such figures are worthless. He also does not answer my charges as regards the clauses in the Government specifications. I will give a sample: Page 3, General Conditions: “Tho contractor, on receiving written notice from the engineer shall suspend the whole of any portion of the work for such reasonable time as may be directed. The contractor shall have no claim for loss or damage on this account, but a commensurate extension of time." Let us see what this moans. The staff of the contractor will have to be paid during such time, he has to pay interest on borrowed money, he leses the use of his equipment, and all he gets is an “extension” of time. Other paragraphs make the contractor liable for any alterations .in design, mistakes made by the Department in plans, Finally, in the specification for the Tawa Flat, page 8, paragraph 8, it is stated: “The Department reserves the right to require the contractor to deliver to it, without extra cost, any portion of the tunnel excavation which the Department may require. The. point of delivery will be arranged between the contractor and tie engineer.” As the engineer’s decision, is final, who would allow'himself to be tied by such a clause. There is. on the same page, another clause which refuses payment outside the section outline. Please. Wellingtonians. take a stroll up to the entrance of the first tunnel on the road to the soap works, The tunnel enters the hill

at an angle of about thirty degrees. Above it there is a road which has been forgotten on the plans, and which has to be displaced, as it falls within the section of the line. What about it?

You will see that there are so many loopholes (I have only mentioned a few) to tell against a contractor, that any person would hesitate to undertake work under these conditions. I repeat my statement; Send out men into the world to learn something, not picnickers, but men who will work on the jobs.—l am, etc., W. J. BRANDSLondon, February 1.