EAST COAST LINE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22643, 3 February 1937, Page 12

EAST COAST LINE

SPECIAL MACHINERY EARLY DELIVERY EXPECTED [by telegraph OWN correspondent] GISBORNE, Tuesday Much of the special plant ordered nearly a year ago by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, for railway construction between Napier and Gisborne will be delivered on to the job within the next few weeks. The plant is now afloat and is on the way to New Zealand, and by the end of March, it is anticipated, the various major items will be performing the specialised work for which they are designed.

Replying to inquiries to-day Mr. 0. G. Thornton, district engineer at Gisborne, said that tunnelling implements would comprise the bulk of the machinery for the delivery of which the department was waiting. Air compressors, rock drills, scrapers for the speedy handling of small debris in tunnels, and concreting pumps were the major items Various other smaller machines would be included in the deliveries, but the tunnelling implements were the most important to the progress of the line. At present, Mr. Thornton pointed out, tunnelling was proceeding by the old manual methods and the rate of progress naturally was slow by comparison with that which the machines were expected to show. The preliminary organisation of tunnelling gangs and the extensive arrangement of labour and material necessary for service of the tunnelling operations are now complete, and there should be no delay in putting the new machinery into operation on its arrival. Permanent foundations had been laid for various items which will remain in place for extended periods, and before April the process of building the Waikokopu-Gisborne portion of tho line should be speeded up materially.