SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 November 1939, Page 5

SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

SATISFACTORY PROGRESS MADE BLENHEIM, October 31. Progress on the South Island Main Trunk railway has been maintained in all aspects over the past nine months and those in authority are able to say definitely that if steel and rail supplies are available in the near future the line will be completed ahead of the scheduled time of 1941. Already on the northern section work has advanced from the stage reached some months ago, when the rails had been laid to the Clarence, to the point that if it were possible now to start platelaying from, the. Clarence to Kaikoura the remaining individual jobs such as the completion of one or two tunnels and the bridge would be finished by the time the plate-layers reached them. i On the southern section the final process of plate-laying depends on the completion of the Amuri tunnel and it is expected that this major undertakirig will be ready by next April.. This information was given in an interview by Mr. E. P. Meachen, M.P., who last week accompanied the Minister for Public Works (Mr. Semple) on a tour of the line. The Minister, said Mr. Meachen, had been very impressed with the progress made since his last visit.

Mr. Meachen detailed a number of aspects of progress on individual undertakings which indicated that they were more than ahead of schedule. From the southern bank of the Clarence down to Kaikoura plate-laying could proceed immediately if rails were available. There was danger that there would be some delay in the supply of rails because of the demands .of war, and certainly at the moment rails were not coming to hand. The Ha-puku bridge, one of the big jobs on the northern section, was well on the way and should be ready within eight or nine months, given favourable weather. A large camp had now been established at ■ Kaikoura, just north of the township, and the men there were concentrating,’ on formation work between Kaikoura and the Kahautara river, some'six or seven miles to the south. This distance covered fairly easy going, in which no difficulty would be experienced, nor was any difficulty anticipated in the construction of the Kahautara bridge.

Southwards from Kahautara remarkable progress had been made ovei verv formidable country as tai down as Amuri. The work here comprised extensive tunnelling, heavy cuttings, and sea protection, and it was an t ic }' pated that all this would allow of platelaving to coincide with the completion of the Amuri tunnel. On the tunnel it-, self which was easily the biggest in-' dividual job on the line, tunnellers! were now operating at two ends, from Oaro and Taratuhi, and there remained a. distance of some 800 feet to penetrate. Until recently the average rate of progress had been 80 feet a month from the northern end and 50 feet a month from the southern end, but now that the southern party had tunnelled through some slip formation, which caused them difficulty, and were now in solid formation, it was expected that its progress would also come up to 80 feet a month. On that basis the tunnel should be completed in five or six months.

From Taratuhi to Claverley and from Claverley to Conway everything was in readiness for plate-laying and the line was actually completed and stock trains running from Conway to Parnassus. Negotiations were now in progress to have the Railway Department take over 12 miles of the completed line from. Parnassus tc Conway.