BIG HILL TUNNEL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10716, 15 March 1911, Page 1

BIG HILL TUNNEL.

CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM TO BE EMPLOYED. (Peb Press Association.'* : Wellington, March 13. The Public Works Department is not committed to the policy of railway construction by co-operative work alone, as experience on the Westpcrt-Inarigahua railway has demonstrated. Tenders are now being invited for the construction of a number of short lengths of that new railway, and deposits and other conditions have -been specially designed to giving working contractors a chance to tender. A batch of eight small contracts is in hand at prices which give satisfaction to the Government, and the work is being properly carried out. There has been a somewhat different- experience on the Law-rence-Roxburgh line, where the Big Hil! tunnel has to be constructed before the rails can be taken further. It was decided to do the work by contract, and tenders were received, but the prices quoted were so considerably in excess of the engineer's estimates that the-Public Works Department will do the tunnelling itself, all the tenders having been declined. The co-opera-tive system of labor will be utilised, for it has been quite satisfactory in previous tunnel works.