TAWA FLAT

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 125, 29 May 1928, Page 10

TAWA FLAT

BIG JOB SHAPING UP. "PIEBALD CORNER" BLASTED FIRST TUNNEL WELL ON Even from the Hutt road H is apparent that a good deal has been done on the Ijig job of opening up the tunnels and preparing for the. steady work on the Tawa Flat deviation, ■which will give Wellington, egress to the north on a grade of 1 in 100, but a visit paid to some portions of the work to-day by a "Post" reporter, showed that a good deal more has been done than shows from either the .road or the railway. No. 1 PORTAL. The reclamation near the over-bridge on the Hult road is out nearly as far as it will go, though there is a lot of ii I ling to bo done towards Kaiwarra. The right quality of hard stone for the foot of the seaward side of the reclamation has been found in the Department's quarry at Horokiwi, and the bank is being faced as it progresses. To-day there was a gang of men working on the steep face overlooking the No. 1 portal facing the over-bridge. Roped and working carefully, they were dislodging all the loose stone prepara ; tory to the facing of the hillside over the entrance with concrete. A good deal of work is still to bo done before the bridge is completed and the ramp built up enough to allow of spoil from the tunnel being trucked out to fill in the rest of the ramp, but it will not be many months before trucks arc rolling over the bridge.' Seven chains of the heading have already been driven from this end.' ■< IN NGAHAURANGA GORGE. In Ngahauranga Gorge, where the trains will emerge from the first short tunnel to plunge into the long one, there are evidences of activity everywhere. The Ngaliauranga (No. 2) portal of the first tunnel is on the hillside almost immediately over the road. Crossing the road by means of a bridge, trains will enter No. 3 portal just below the Newlands road, on the left-hand side or* the gully looking up. A good deal of rock has been cut away on this side of the road, and the'track has been cut out up to No. 3 portal, where a steam shovel is making short work of the hillside. The portal itself is in process of being opened up. In the vicinity of those works offices and stores havo sprung up. The men's camp will bo at Khandallah. A MASSIVE BRIDGE. The bridge'will, be a massive alTair, well above the road. The pier's have been built, and the girders are lying almost ready to go in. There will bo two girders at each end of the bridge of 50ft span. The centre girders arc of C'Oft span. They* are six feet wide over-fill, and when they are bolted in place, with their thousands of rivets, they will weigh 28. tons apiece. A stroll down the 14 chains of the tunnel from No. 2 portal shows that it is being well timbered as the work progresses, and the ventilation, by means of an IS-inch pipe of galvanised iron, is excellent. There is only a faint trace of explosive fumes, quite a difference from the average mine. Haulage is done by means of storage battery motors. What is being driven now is only the heading, a preparatory tunnel from which the arch of the finished tunnel will bo enlarged, but it will be big enough to allow of the transit in trucks of the spoil from the longer tunnel as soon as the hill is pierced to the sea. As 21 chains of the 63 have been driven, this is already one-third accomplished. Very little water has been met in this tunnel so far. Above No. 3 portal on the opposite side of., the road will be* erected gravel bins, cement storage sheds, and a complete mixing plant, with chutes to the rails below, so that the mixture may be shot straight into the trucks, and taken to whatever part of the tunnels it is required. A '' RAILWAY ROAD. The next point visited waß the shaft within sight of the viaduct beyond Jolmsonville. Transport is one of the great difficulties of such a job as the Tawa Flat deviation. At .first thought it seems as though the existing railway could be made use of, but this is, if not impossible, very inadvisable. Apart from the blocking of the main line, the loss of time in.loading and unloading under difficulties and the final transport of the material to tho job would make such a method very costly. There aje countless necessities in a job of this kind, all of which have to be transported. . Timber for the tunnels, great tree trunks ton feet long, iron work, cement, camp equipment, and other material, necessitate a road. Just beyond where the big slip came down last winter a roughly metalled track leads off over tho creek, and winds away up the gully. Traffic will soften its asperities, but at present it consists of metal that never passed through a ring.. Some little distance up the gully is tho men's camp of hutments with tho customary iron chimneys, and nearly a mile from the main road the viaduct comes into view. Immediately.beyond this is the shaft, head. The shaft will be 130 feet deep, and trains passing over the viaduct give a good idea of the saving in grade that will bo effected, though this is one of the lowest spots in the contour chart of the hills which the tunnel pierces. This shaft is threequarters of a mile from the northern end of the tunnel. It will be equipped with a spoil hoist, tho spoil being dumped, away up the gully, and the presence of the shaft will enable work to be carried on at two more faces in the tunnel, making six faces in all that can bo worked at the same time. Quite a lot of work has been done already here, and the making of the road' is itself quite if showy job. A HEAVY SHOT. Returning to the main road, a threequarter mile run takes the visitor to No. i portal, which has.just been opened up in the clay. Motorists will know "Piebald Corner," where the road passes inside a rocky knob. This excrescence will disappear altogether in the course of the construction of the deviation. Recently 25cwt of explosives were buried in its vitals, and the hole filled up again. When the big shot was fired, 12,000 yards of rock were "shaken." Big cracks all over the knob show how effective it was, and now the steam shovel eats into it like, cheese. The line will cross the little creek six times over small bridges after it emerges from No. 4 portal a good deal below the level of the road. Just above this portal will be installed a big cement and concrete mixing plant. All the spoil from No. 4 portal has to be lorried to tho dump at tho shaft by the viaduct, as nobody wants it spread around at the Tawa Flat end, and for this purpose tho road to the shaft is a necessity. Most of the work done is purely preparatory, tout it gives a good idea of the lay out of the big job. The special plant being imported for tho main work will not be hero for six months, and by that time all will be ready for an onslaught in force.

Ernest Scott, iwlio was admitted 1o tlic Hospital yesterday morning suffering from severe injuries received in a collision between ;i motor-cycle and a motor-lorry, was reported by the Hospital" authorities at midday; to-day tobe a- little better.