STRATFORD-MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15513, 21 January 1914, Page 11

STRATFORD-MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

PROGRESS OF THE WORK.

THE TUNNEL CONTRACT.

TFKOM our own correspondent.] Marked progress has been made with the Stratford-Main Trunk line since my last visit a few months —especially in connection with the tunnel contract, which is being actively prosecuted by Mr. Forrest and his little army of navvies. The operations of the Public Works Department are now chiefly devoted to the western (Ohura) side, three small contracts having been let, and about 32 men being employed on these. A number of other men are engaged in forming and pumicing the road from the "12-mile" to Mr. Warren's (a distance of nearly three miles). Another small contract next to the western end of the tunnel is being advertised at present.

At the Okahukura end a small number of Public WoTks Department men are employed in completing certain banks— notably the long embankment which stretches out towards the Ongarue River. This has now gone almost as far as it is intended to go, as room must be left for a road between the river and the embankment. The Railway Bridge. The intention is to have the railway completed from the railway station up to the mouth of the tunnel before the latter is completed. To make the linkage complete, a railway and traffic bridge combined has to be thrown over the Ongarue River at Okahakura. Plans for this structure have now been prepared and it is intended to call for tenders for it without delay. The formation works extending from the station to the beginning of the tunnel (about one-and-a-half miles) being almost complete, the track of the new railway through the rugged country is very clearly defined. The cuttings are so regularly sloped that it looks as if some gigantic knife had slashed a curving line along the hills, the pieces cut away from the elevated portions falling into the depressions and filling them up. The service road is wearing very well indeed, a result of it« having been thoroughly fascined and pumiced. In the neighbourhood of the station there is no longer the stir and activity of industrial lite. The bulk of the men are now employed on the tunnel contract. The blacksmiths' and, carpenters' shops are still going, however. The Tunnel Contract. Quite 130 men are now working on the tunnel contract, distributed over different sections of the work. Some are cutting down a "face" to the permanent level of the railway route ; some are making with concrete an artificial bed for a. creek ' and changing its course ; some are sinking a shaft; at brief intervals half-a-dozen loud reports in succession indicate that the papa rock is being blasted out. Another group is engaged in roofing the sawmill. This is completely equipped for cutting the timber necessary for the work, the extent of which can be imagined from the fact that it paid the contractor to erect his own sawmill. It will also provide material for houses which Mr. Forrest is erecting for his foremen, and flooring for the tents of other employees. Among the buildings erected in connection with the contract are a substantial offico and residence for the overseer, a fine blacksmith's shop, and a store for explosives, in which five tons are alreadystored. Since my last report the service road to the eastern and to the western mouths of the tunnel have been practically completed. The approach to the tunnel at the eastern end has been finished to a distance of 11 chains, leaving eight chains to complete. It is estimated that this will be done in seven months. The batters will be left for the present, the object being to push along as fast as possible with the work. The Western End. At the western or Ohura end the service road has been almost completed. A portion of this, 29 chains long, has been run along the route of the railway. Timber has been felled and the bush has been burnt. A start is now being made with jails and trucks to open up the approach itself. A distance of 15 chains has been done at an average depth of 18ft. Two and three shifts are being worked in most of the jobs, so that the operations are being carried on night and day.