GOOD PROGRESS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21185, 4 November 1938, Page 8

GOOD PROGRESS

South Island Main Trunk Completion Expected in 1941 By Telegraph—Press Association BLENHEIM. November 3 The Minister of Public Works (Hon. R. Semple), interviewed on completing his inspection of the South Island main trunk construction work, expressed satisfaction at the progress being made and said that the line would be completed at approximately the estimated cost by about the time expected in 1941, but this is still contingent on continued satisfactory progress of the major tunnelling operations on the southern section. So far as the tunnels on the northern section are concerned, two have already been completed and all will be finished during the coming year. The delay which has been occasioned has been due to lack of steel required for the big Clarence Bridge, 1500 feet long, but this has now been overcome to a large extent, and a quantity of steel which has been fabricated in the Railway Workshops at Wellington, is beginning to arrive on the scene. Some experienced steel workers, formerly engaged on the Mohaka Viaduct, are now employed on the Clarence undertaking. When all the steel is landed on the job, the bridge will take nine or ten months to complete. The biggest remaining undertaking, the Amiri tunnel, is still making slow progress, and the Minister indicated that the completion of the whole line hinges on this task. Mr Semple said that the work will be finished first in the northern section o the line, when a majority of the men engaged there will be transferred to south of Kaikoura with the object of bringing about the completion of both sections as nearly simultaneously as possible.