EAST COAST RAILWAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1938, Page 17

EAST COAST RAILWAY

EFFORT AND SKILL

MAY TAKE TWO YEARS

BUSINESS MEN'S INSPECTION

For the first time since, the inception of the work.a party of Gisborne busi-

ness men, on a visit sponsored by the District Engineer, Mr. O. G. Thornton, ''.visited the construction camps and major features of the works on the East Coast railway recently., They were deeply impressed with the magnitude of the work and the construction . methods, says the "Poverty Bay Herald." . Those who took part in the expedition had the advantage of direct information from the engineer in charge of railway construction, Mr. W. L. Bell, and his assistant engineers, concerning matters which the principal interest centred. The delegation, which was organised by the Gisborne Thirty Thousand .Club and the Chamber of Commerce, formed the.opinion that the — line would not be completed in less than two years, if in so short a space; and that only under the most favourable circumstances would it be possible to have trains running for the Centennial celebrations in Poverty Bay in October, 1940. .'_' EFFECT OF FLOODS. ' Oq the other hand, it. was realised that every economy of time which the use of machinery could effect was, being made, and that a skilled organisation of engineers, overseers, and workmen had been built up, with the earliest possible completion of .the line as its principal objective. It was learned, too, that the floods and other upsets of the past winter had caused serious checks in the general, programme of work, even where the floods themselves caused ho damage. ■ : Following the February inundation, the chief feature of which was the disaster at No. 4 camp, Kopuawhara Valley; ail available men were transferred' from railway construction to repair work. - The subsequent floods —the most serious was that of April 25—added to the damage done in February and also threw back the repair work to a considerable extent. In all, the floods must have cost from three to four months' deJLay' in., the /construction programme. Only recently has the. railways organisation returned to its- normal working trim. - , '....' TUNNELLING ADVANCES : ; STEADILY.-' ; - • ". . ' in the major tunnels, on which attention has been concentrated in recent months/the rate of progress is reaching an average of Bft per day, this record including the whole of the tunnelling work,1 up to the finished- co^ crete lining. Even better figures may be attained, as the work1 proceeds, but it is a matter of pride for engineers and tunnellers . alike that the. present rate rivals the best previously established in New Zealand in similar country. Work programmes naturally are based on Ittie tunnelling projects, for unless the progress of a big tunnel' can be served by: a proposed outlay of money in work and materials,' there is not much point in making the outlay at this stage. , The importance of 'the "^tunnelling jobs was impressed on the visitors, who heard with keen interest that the 46-. chain Coast tunnel, the-bottom heading of which was completed last Easter/ is now well oh the way to completion; that the Waikoura tunnel. Of 72 chains should be completed in the lull section by May or June, 1939; and that at both faces of the Waiau-Tikiwhata tunnel, of 143 chains, a total. of 36 chains of full-section construction has been carried out to date. EXCAVATION AND CONCRETING. The Waikoura tunnel has been pierced in the full section to a depth of 1730 ft from the northern end, at Torries' Camp, and* 1325 ft from the southern end, below Wharekakaho Camp, making a total excavation of approximately 46 chains out of 72 chains. ' „ In the Coast tunnel, the bottom heading goes all the way through the 46 chains of the hills,- and the fullsection excavation has advanced 478 ft from the portals. In the case of the Waiau-Tikiwhata tunnel, the faces are in 15 chains from the north portal and 21 chains from the southern portal, and full-section excavation' is close up to the faces. Concreting has been carried well up to the. faces from each of the portals on the major tunnelling jobs. v A variation of the profile moulding is necessary where, owing to badly shattered ground or an excessive seepage : of water, the concreting work is carried- under the bed of the: railway to link up the lower portions of the wall, thus creating a continuous, lining to the tunnel, egg-shaped to exclude all possibility of later mishap. This form • of lining has been used only in two places, one of which is adjacent to the northern portal bi the, Coast tunnel, and the other in one of the smaller jobs knows as Saunders' tunnel, near Beach Camp.

One of the impressions, which all members of the party shared was that too little is known to the public generally of the magnitude of the railway works, and of the problems which had to be solved in laying out the line. Especially at the northern piortal of the Waiau-Tikiwhata tunnel, it was found that space for equip-ment-was at a premium, and that the utmost ingenuity had had to be employed to accommodate the semi-per-manent installations of air-compres-sors, ventilating equipment, and concrete mixing machinery. The energy sttown in prosecuting the programme of construction was the subject of much comment among the members of the inspecting parity, and Mr. Jas. Chrisp, f on behalf of the visitors, expressed their deep sense of obligation to the Public Works Department and its staff for the opportunity of seeing for themselves the progress of work upon which the future development of Gisbome and the East Coast depends so vitally.*