TUNNELLING METHODS.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17277, 13 December 1927, Page 8

TUNNELLING METHODS.

DEPARTMENT CRITICISED.

BY ENGLISH EXPERTS. RIDICULOUS AND ABSURD.' (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. An English civil engineer at present visiting Wellington, who has experience all over the world in tunnelling, strongly condemns the methods of the Public Works Department as anti-' quated and costly. The projected Tawa Flat tunnel, he says, is going to cost tliree times as much as it should, and he quotes the Westfield tunnel, on the Auckland Deviation, as a case in point. That had taken two years to build, though only 29 chains in length, and at the same rate the Tawa Flat works would occupy 17 years. He advises the Government to send some one abroad to learn how tunnels are built. The antiquated methods at Westfield are being applied to Tawa Flat, and engineers are going on lines long superseded, under wfliich no sane contractor would take on a job. One engineer was copying another’s ideas regardless of whether they applied or not. The average tunnelling Is nowadays 75 ft. per week, and even that is a moderate estimate, but at Tawa Flat it will only be 50 feet per month. The whole system of tunnelling, the design and the way the work is carried out, are ridiculous and absurd. This expert condemnation follows on grave doubts raised by local engineers as to the propriety of the route selected. It is contended that a grade of 1 in 100 is preposterous when a much flatter grade could easily be secured. The official reply to this was regarded as far from satisfactory. Now the Department has to face a still graver charge.