RAILWAY DEVIATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 4, 6 January 1944, Page 4

RAILWAY DEVIATION

COMPLETION DELAYED BY MANPOWER SHORTAGE

Because of a shortage of manpower, completion of the railway deviation between Turakina and Okoia, on the main line to Wanganui and Taranaki, is being delayed. At present about 50 men are employed, but it is stated that the work could absorb three times that number. The Turakina River has been bridged and preliminary work is in hand on the track which will give access to the tunnel between the Wangaehu and Turakina Rivers. Plant Is also being assembled. The bridge over the Turakina is of the plate-girder type and has four spans of 55 feet each. Laying the girders presented some unusual engineering problems. The next stage of operations will be the provision of a temporary track over this bridge, after which no difficulty will be experienced in transporting* materials to the southern portion of the first tunnel The work is being carried out by the Public Works Department, under the supervision of Mr. E. D. Kalaugber. Asked to comment on the progress being made with the deviation, the district engineer. Mr. G. W. Sampson, said yesterday that lack of manpower was the department’s problem. A further phase in the operations will be the riveting of the lengthy bridge which will span the Wangaehu River. A start will be made as soon as the required men are available. The bridge is of the through-girder type and will contain six spans, each 60 feet in length. The bridge will be mounted on five sets of concrete piers, already in position. The girders will he drawn across the bridge in successive stages. The longest tunnel on the 11-mile deviation is that between the two livers. It has a length of 104 chains and was pierced before the war, after which construction work was temporarily suspended, mainly because of a shortage of manpower and materials. This tunnel is of a type new to New Zealand. Built after American practice it has straight walls and a semi-c«» cular top. The formations and road beds of the deviation have been . completed, hut plate-laying operations have yet to begin.