EXPERTS’ RUSH TRIP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23500, 14 May 1938, Page 5

EXPERTS’ RUSH TRIP

SEEKING WAY TO MEND DAM SPILLWAYS AT BURRINJUCK (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, May 7. Because of the urgency with which the State Government regards the scheme for prevention of seepage at Burrinjuck Dam, two engineers, Mr A. J. Gibson and Mr Brewster, will probably travel to London by plane. So that they may return to New South Wales as soon as possible, to enable the starting of the vital work of enlargement of spillways, Messrs Gibson and Brewster will travel through Europe by plane. The experts will visit Russia, where they will inspect a dam which presented a similar problem to that at Burrinjuck. Mr Gibson, a member of the engineering firm of Julius, Poole, and Gibson, and Mr Brewster, chief engineer of the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission, will start their trip next week. They will first confer in London with the firm of Rendel, Palmer, and Tritton, on the measures necessary to combat the seepage at Burrinjuck. According to the Premier, Mr Stevens, the proposal to cut 10 feet from the crest of the dam has been modified by a proposal to take flood waters from the dam through bigger soillways. The work of extending the plant and providing means for the construction and assembling of a watertight shield on the face of the dam will be put in hand at once.

The Premier stated that satisfactory relief, it had been found, could not be obtained by cutting the full lengths of the crest of the dam, but effective control of Rood water would be secured by spillway modifications at the ends of the dam.