DAM ENGINEERS TO TRAVEL

Southland Times, Issue 23512, 19 May 1938, Page 12

DAM ENGINEERS TO TRAVEL

PROBLEM TO BE STUDIED OVERSEAS 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 aeroplane, and so that they may return as soon as possible to enable the starting of the vital work of the enlargement of spillways, they will go on to Russia by aero - plane to 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. According to the Premier (Mr Stevens) the proposal to cut 10ft from the crest of the dam has been modified by a proposal to take flood waters from the dam through bigger spillways. 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 flood water would be secured by spillway modifications at the ends of the dam.