LAST SYMBOLS OF RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PERIOD REMOVED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22624, 29 April 1948, Page 4

LAST SYMBOLS OF RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PERIOD REMOVED

COMPLETION OF DIFFICULT TASK

jpOR the field staff of the P.B. Electric-Power Board, March 23 marked the completion of a task of some magnitude in the course of which the last symbols of the railway construction period between Gisborne and Waikokopu were removed.

In a little over three months i the board's staff dismantled and ! removed the electric-power line of 11,000-volt capacity which during the construction period served the Works Department’s camps and jobs between Opoutama and Bartlett’s. The line was taken over by the board in 1944, but it was not until last last year that the shortage of electrical materials warranted the diversion of man-power and mechanical resources to its reclamation. One of the outstanding features of the line was its exceptional inaccessibility from the highways. A few miles of the access roads constructed by the Works Department between 1936 and 1938 were still usable, but in general the roads had deteriorated badly and in many places they were impassible. Some bridges used during the construction period had been removed, and others, had reached an advanced stage of decomposition; numerous slips and wash-outs had occurred, and manuka 10ft high covered many of the old tracks. Haulage distances involved in recovering the material were considerable, especially on such sections as the lower part of the Kopuawhara Valley. Servicing the camps in this valley meant a round trip of 120 miles, via Morere, Nuhaka and Waikokopu. Careful Survey of Job Prior to the commencement of dismantling and removal the job was carefully surveyed. Eacht pole was drilled to determine its value, possible access routes were noted, loading and stacking sites were located, and the line and its materials were fully assessed for practical use in the board’s own work. Attention was also given to the camp-ing-sites for the board’s field staff; in the course of the job four carrips were used, at Kopuawhara, Paritu, the south end of the Tikawhata tunnel, and on Wharerata Hill near Bartlett’s. All arrangements made in advance took into account the possibility of a break in tire weather, and alternative plans had to be evolved for continuing the work under such conditions. Actually the weather held fine throughout the job until its very late stages, when the gang was working on the lower slopes of the Whareratas with good road access. The technique of dismantling was developed as the job progressed, and pre-

conceived ideas had to be abandoned from time to time and practical, timesaving devices adopted. For example, the use of climbing irons by linesmen had to be dropped when it was founi that crumblirg sapwood on some poles rendered climbing dangerous. The alternative course adopted was to raise the poles out of the ground by timber-jacks, and lower them with the wire and insulators attached. their removal being accomplished quickly at ground level. Many poles were in difficult positions, perched on the tops of 500 ft. ridges or in lower positions where access was most difficult. They were almost invariably surrounded by shoulder-high .bracken, blackberry and bush-lawyer vines. Cross-arm timber, insulators and iron-work had to be carried up to two miles by man-power, over rough mountainous country, this task requiring extreme physical exertion on the part of the linesmen. Not Ail Recovered Not all of the poles were recovered. In some cases the work involved was uneconomic, and where possible these poles were sold to farmers for fencing timber. Where the poles were firmly bedded in heavy rock it proved more economical to cut them off at ground level than to try to save their butts. Primary consideration was given, of course, to the recovery of the heavy copper wire, which at present prices has a considerable value. This ’■■hase of the work was facilitated by the use of a heavy truck fitted with a powerful winch. Once freed from the poles the wire was attached to the winch-drum and wound in. The task was complicated by the sparsity of points at which the truck could work, and it was necessary to pull sections of wire up to 3000yds. in one piece. The strain ot dragging over ridges, through creeks and along rocky ground was tremendous, at times, and on occasions the. pull of the winch exceeded materially the nominal break-ing-strain of the wire, 25001 b. The winch also was used to drag poles into position for loading, and for this purpose 500yds. of wire cable was employed. Poles outside the reach of this cable were abandoned, if they could not be sold; the actual recovery represented, however, a large percentage of the total of 160 poles on the line. Taken as a whole, the job of recovery was completed in good time considering the difficult physical conditions, and economically it was thoroughly justified by the value of material salvaged.