WORK FOR 400 MEN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19125, 21 September 1936, Page 4

WORK FOR 400 MEN

RAILWAY DEVIATION ESTIMATED COST £500,000 WELL INC TON - T A R A N A KI Work for 40G men will be provided by the construction of the Turakina-Fordeli-Okoia. deviation on the Wellington-New Plymouth railway line, which the Government haf? arranged to put in hand at once. The cost is estirnatel at £500,000, of which 45 per cent will be absorbed in labour. It is expected that the work will occupy three years. A small •number of men already have started erecting accommodation and additional men will be employed as soon as plans are sufficiently advanced. The work was recommended by a departmental committee set up to investigate various schemes, and is included in the programme announced by the Minister of Public -Works, the Hon. R. Semple, as a project of national value. Leaving the-main line at the northern end of the Turakina station yard the deviation will cross the Turakina and Wangaehu Rivers and the Wangaehu Valley, then proceeding in a.northerly direction. Beyond the Wangaehu River the deviation will rise on a grade of one in 70, passing tlirough the Fordell ridge by a tunnel 60 chains long, and. will then proceed iii a northwesterly direction to rejoin the existing line at a point lj miles on the Fordell side of the Okoia station. The main line will be shortened by approximately 2i miles and the grades and curves on the deviation will be much easier.