LAKE COLERIDGE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19250, 14 August 1924, Page 8

LAKE COLERIDGE.

WORK AT THE NEW TUNNEL, HEROIC EFFORTS TO OVERCOME WATER. (From Our Own Correspondent. ) WELLINGTON. August in. After hard and determined work on the part, of the contractors and men to overcome the water inflow in No. 2 tunnel. Lake Coleridge, it lias now been decided to abandon the old line of the tnnne! and to strike it on a new alignment. The difficult nature of the problem before, the men will be appreciated when it is stated that the -water was pouring into the tunnel at ths rate of 73 gallons a minute. Sustained and even heroic efforts were made to overcome the trouble, but without success. The country through which the tunnel has to go is largely of morainic and shingly formation, and when the water came pouring in a great deal of the work collapsed. ■ The men were even buried or almost buried in the debris. To use a colioqnail phrase, the men tried to bullock it through, but without any success. The other day Mr Boban, accompanied by Mr Noie, came to Wellington for the purpose of interviewing the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. J. O. Coates) in regard to an alternative method. Mr Coates immediately sent one of the Public Works engineers to Lake Coleridge to report. The engineer has now made certain recommendations, the result of which will be that the tunnel will be proceeded with on a new alignment. The engineer’s recommendations coincide with the plan recommended by Messrs Beban and Noie. Shafts will be driven until the line of the water Inflow is passed, and then the tunnel work will proceed on the new alignment. This will mean the scrapping of a good deal of the wor kalready done, possibly at an extra cost of some £7OOO. The new drive necessary in connection w r ith the altered iay-out will be started to-morrow. The probability is that if the tunnel proceeds on the new alignment the work will not be delayed appreciably. The Minister stated that he greatly appreciated the splendid and determined manner in which all concerned had endeavoured to overcome the difficulty, and the manner in which the department had been met by the contractors.