EXTENSION WORK AT WAITAKI POWER STATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 May 1950, Page 4

EXTENSION WORK AT WAITAKI POWER STATION

DUNEDIN, This Day (0.C.). —A start is to be made in the near future on a camp to house workmen employed on extensions to the Wa - taki hydro-electric station at Kurow. ine present power house is to be extended to accommodate two new 15,000-kilowatt generators, and this will bring the total output to 105,000 kilowatts. It is hoped that the extra power will be available by the winter of 1954. Preliminary steps are being taken by the Ministry of Works to have a large camp built to accommodate the workers and tneir families. When the job at the hydro works is completed, the camp will be transferred about 20 miles further up the Waitaki river to Black Jack’s Point, where the Benmore scheme will be started. When completed, this scheme will produce more than 300,000 kilowatts. By the time the works at Black Jack’s Point is started, the Lake Pukaki and Lake Tekapo undertakings will be completed, and there should be a large labour force available. The Otago Education Board has been keeping in touch with the Commissioner of Works about the number of families who will be stationed at the works. ' At its meeting this week the board received information from the Commissioner of Works, Mr E. R. McKillop, that about 100 married men would be employed on the extension work. It would be about one year before the houses would be fully occupied, the commissioner’s letter stated, and the project engineer would keep the board informed of the rate of growth so that school arrangements could be made.