THE OTIRA TUNNEL.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16252, 1 July 1918, Page 2

THE OTIRA TUNNEL.

AN EXPERT'S EXPLANATION.

la a statement to a Wellington paper, concerning the Otira tunnel,/'Atr R. W. Holmes, chief engineer of / the Public Works Department, said / that on Juno Ist- tho advanced headings were 470 ft apart, and it was expected that the piercing of this gap /would be finished by the end of July./ The section of advanced headings / wouid then be one mile twenty-eight/ chains in length, a bore 9ft by SftJ fhis length had to be widened anAl iined with concrete, just as the otflier sections had been. / Very careful calculations j had been made to ensure an exact menting of the "heads." Mr Holmes waA confident that the join would bo /satisfactory. However, if it was proved that there had been any appreciable/error in the survey, this could bo co/rrected without difficulty within theJ length of 1 mile 2S chains of the advanced drives. Th" Department had 'effected exact junctions in sharply cfurved tunneis, which made the calculations more complicated than the straight drive of Otiiu (on a gradient of 1 yn 33—two feet to the chain). The tnmncl would bo 5 miles 25 chains in lringth. The original contract for the tunnct was accepted on Aiugust Ist, 1907, <»nd work was begun /soon afterwards, out the operations during the first year were mainly preliminary. The Government took oy'er the work in December, 1912. / Mr Holmes /remarked that it was impossible to /estimate the time that would be take** to finish tho work. It was wholly aI question of man-power. The were all available in NewZealand, aad all necessary machinery was on th,« spot, but the man-power remained ([uncertain. He believed that all men eligible for military service nad moved oyl; those who were left were mostly ynarried. The Department had not appealed for any exemptions, because] the preservation of the country as a Avhole wa» regarded as more important than the finishing of the tunnel.-' The tunnel was now 'undermanned • indeed, there had never been til,© full number of men who could Hive j been employed.