SCOTLAND'S NIAGARA

Taranaki Daily News, 9 October 1937, Page 14 (Supplement)

SCOTLAND'S NIAGARA

HUGE TUNNEL SCHEME Two tunnels • trough Ben Udlaman in the Grampians niet last montii. The last big' wedge of rock) between them was blasted through.. This completes the five-mile tunnel in the mountain through which the waters of Loch Garry will flow to join those of Loch Ericht to raise them 14 feet. It was begun in April 1935, and is part of the scheme to make Loch Ericht a huge reservoir 14 miles long to contribute power for electricity for Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dundee, and the townS and villages in between. The Grampians are making their lochs tlie Niagaras of tlie (North. Ben Udlaman's tunnel is a triumph for ihe engineers and for the workmen as well. The mountain was too high to permit the sinking of shafts to mark tlie progress of tlie tunnels. These had to be driven from either end, with the accuracy attained by modern practice in maintaiiiing direction- and level, so as to ensure the junction. There was no failure. • ' . While tlie 9-foot tunnels were beirig cut between 100 and 300 men wbrked night and day in sliifts for most of thie tinie. Last winter tiie roads leading to their camps were blocked'Witli snow for seven weeks, and the -overhead' power cable for supplying electricity for the drills was enveloped in. ice iiicnes thick. But the work hardly ceased, and the tunnel has not cost oue life. • Ben Udlaman's tunnel and the Loch Ericht reservoir, containing thousands "of millions of cubic feet of water, are part of larger schemes which already include that of Lochaber and the 15-miles tunnel tlirough Ben Nevis, begun nine years agp. When Loch Ericht's dams and power houses at Rannoch and Tummel are in ful workdng order, next year, the waters will supply 110,000 h-p for Scotland's electricity. There is more to come.