HUIA DAM SCHEME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19888, 6 March 1928, Page 10

HUIA DAM SCHEME.

EXPEDITING CONSTRUCTION.

DOUBLE SHIFTS TO OPERATE.

COMPLETING WAITAKERE WORK.

Double shifts on the construction of the dam in connection with the Huia Valley water conservation scheme are expected to fee started at the beginning of next week. Inauguration of the double working time has been delayed pending the erection of the extra accommodation required for the additional men who will be employed. The men required for the extra shift will be taken from the Waitakere reservoir, where the raising of the dam is practically completed. All told there will be approximately 130 men at work on the Huia headworks and the undertaking will be expedited from dawn to dark each day. The .Waitakere dam has been raised 16ft. and is now capable of storing 450,000,000 gallons of water, an increase of 230,000,000 gallons. The preparatory work for increasing the capacity of the reservoir was put in hand in the middle of 1926 and concreting was commenced at the end of that year. It was expected that the undertaking would be completed late last year, but the heavy floods of Christmas, 1926, necessitated the holding up of the work while repairs to the pipeline were put in hand. The wall of the dam is now 80ft. 6in. in .height and from a maximum thickness of sßit. at the - base the wall tapers to Bft. at the top. Besides raising the dam by 16ft. it was decided to give additional security by adding a new thickness of concrete, the added layer being 13ft. thick at the base. The old and new walls are locked together by 4500 steel dowels each 18in. in length and lin. in thickness.