THE OTIRA TUNNEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17145, 26 April 1919, Page 11

THE OTIRA TUNNEL.

A DIFFICULT PROJECT. WORK NEARING COMPLETION. BT WILL LAWSON. _ When a human enterprise of magnitude IB approaching successful completion the interest of the public in the matter becomes a vital and almost aggressive thing. And to-day, when travellers for the West Coast step off the train at Arthur's Pass for the first time, they usual lj' ask : " Where is the tunnel?" When, their attention is properly directed, they 6ee across a labyrinth of construction tracks, to the right of the station, an archway of cement framing a horseshoe of blackness. This is the eastern end of the great tunnel, through which the electric locomotives will haul the trains, linking the east and west, and bringing the seaboards of two coast* within a few hours' travol of ono another.

There is nothing about that dark entrance to indicate in which direction it leads in its passage under the Alps, but just before the train enters Arthur's Pass station two monuments stand, concrete pillars set on high land where were two trig posts which were used in the survey work JVith these in line of vision with the tunnel mouth, the direction is discovered. Though the tunnel links east and west, its direction is nearly due j north and south, and from the Bealoy end it falls on a constant grade of 1 foot ! in every 3 feet, so that in its length of 5J miles the fall from east to west is l 840ftr-from an elevation of 2430 ft at Arthur's Pass to 1590 ft at Otira. Every New Zealander knows that the Otira tunnel is a long one and that it pierces .the Southern Alps. But none ■can rightly estimate what such a length means and how it overcomes a gigantic natural barrier until an actual journey through the tunnel has been made. After more than eleven years of work, Otira tunnel is through; a narrow-gauge tram runs from end to end. Standing at the Bealey end of the big hole, where the I dynamos of the power-house throb and hum and , the rumble of the electric .tram ! locomotives comes out of the dimly-'; lighted tunnel, one may be pardoned for looking back over the years to the time when man first sought a way across these mountains. Early Projects Recalled. In the early saventies men began to talk of a railway which would link Christchurch and Nelson with the coastit is a striking fact that in all these trans-Alpine schemes Nelson was keen to take a hand, as well as displaying some activity in building a line from Nelson towards Reefton. In 1878 active agita- • tion for the line across the Alps bogan I in Westland and Christchurch, with Nelson making a third in the agitation. A public subscription was made to pay the cost/ cf a flying survey of a route. Tho surveyors, Messrs. Thornton and Brown, , laid out a line through Cannibal Gorge. 1 At Lewis Pass, the highest point of this . route, an elevation of 2550 ft is reached, i and the surrounding country is high, i J open, and easy, except in the gorge ! proper, and even there the engineering difficulties would not have been a serious ] matter. At that time 16 tunnels were i planned, the longest 2i miles !o<ig. Two ] million pounds was the estimated cost of thin line, and there are experts to-day who hold that if it had been built the coast would have been linked with the outside world long ago. At the lower end of the Cannibal Gorge there is a watershed from which start the Grey River, the Inaneahua, and the Mariua, '■ flowing respectively to Greymouth, Beef ton, and Westport. Short radiating lines of railway could have been built to these places and to Nelson, through 'Murchison. $ Royal Commission's Report. But the Cannibal Gorge route was reported against, in company with that of Hurunui Gorge, further soulh, by a Royal •, Commission in 1883, which urged that ' the best way to cross the mountains was 'to go north-west from Springfield, the ! terminus at that time of the Christchurch ! line, and cross at Arthur's Pass, thence proceeding to Stillwater, near Greymouth. In spite of difficulties and adversities, this route has been adhered to, and so far as the linking up of the tracks is concerned, the line is through. It is in the accomj plishir.g of this that the triumph of I human courage and industry is to be seen. Following upon the report of the Royal Commission, a syndicate, consisting of promi ent citizens of the Westland, Nelson, and Canterbury Provinces was I formed. It was called the Chrystall SynI dicate, and it entered into a contract . with a British company to build 150 miles of railway oh the selected route. After further consideration, tl e contract was revised and made to provide for a line from Springfield to the Nelson railway system, a distance of 235 miles, the cost to be 2J millions of mooey. This is still known as the Chrystall Contract. Owing I to lack of financial support, nothing was done till 1886, when the syndicate was floated into the Midland Railway Company, with a capital of £500,000. During the period of transition from syndicate to company, some South American railway contractors offered to build the line in four years at a cost of £4,030,000. The guarantee required by them was considered too formidable, and the Midland Company proceeded to carry out the work. Government Takes Control. In the Midland Company's plan the I tunnel under Arthur's Pass was only three miles long, and it pierced the hill at a point much higher up the pass. Even this comparatively short tunnel daunted the company for a time, and it was decided in 1888 to use either the Fell or the Abt system of mountain line, specially-designed engines operating on a rack or friction grip, climbing on steep grades. At Otira to-day the engineers will show you where it was intended to build this rack railway. The proposal, however, was not favoured by the Government engineers, who stated that in tho uphill passage through the tunnel near the top every man, woman, and child on the train would be suffocated. The struggles of the Midland Company with the natural obstacles, its wrangles with the Government over land values, and its financial difficult. caused its bankruptcy in 1896, and the Government i took over the line. The Government engineers at once attacked the problem of the tunnel under the Pass. They surveyed alternative routes and systems of haulage, pondering over tunnels ranging in length from four to eight miles. Finally the advice of an American expert 1 wag sought. Mr. Boyne, a distinguished 1 engineer, came from the United States ; and inspected the Pa« 6 fr m all its stub- ' born |.oi ts of v.ew. He advised a one-big-innnel r»ut-; f and wth modifications by the Government engineers ins uuvice I was followed. A contract was entered | into with -Messrs. John McLean and Sons j for the construction of the tunnel at a. j cost of £600,000, and the work was to < he completed at the end of the ye=r 191?. , The first shot viae, fired on May *~ 1908. Chiefly owing to luijuur cl.uMiitus, me contractors were compelled to abandon the work, and the Government took it over before it was half completed. What the actual cost of the tunnel will amount to cannot be estimated, but so far as the ! work has gone the cost has been lower j than that of the Swiss tunnels of note, : judged on a proportionate ba>is. The j Government has had its troubles, too, in ! this great undertaking, and when on July 21. 1919, the last obstruction between the eastern and western headings , was removed by an historic shot, the satisfaction which comes of successful achievement was expressed by all coni neeted with the work. There is still • more than a year's work to be done be- ' fore the full width and. heipjit of the [arch te completed throughout.'