Open Cut at Whakamaru

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 78, Issue 7025, 28 February 1949, Page 5

Open Cut at Whakamaru

“Each hydro-electric job in New Zealand has a different setting, and. thus there is a multitude of special features to be dealt with. Here in the Waikato River you will find some splendid examples,” said Mr J. T. Gilkison, engineer in charge of the work now in progress in the Mangakino area. He had been showing a part}' of engineers from all parts of the Dominion over the construction works at Maraetai, where the huge dam, power house and lake are being constructed in a deep and narrow gorge. Then he told them that the next job, at Whakamaru, a few miles upstream, would have many entirely different features, one being a cheaper and quicker method of diverting the river while the dam is, being built. Plans had not been announced, but it seemed likely that there would be an open cut, 70 feet deep, and that it would have to be blocked again with concrete when the dam was built. That departure from the orthodox was due to the different terrain from that at Maratai and Karapiro.