DAM OR TUNNEL?

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 286, 29 August 1919, Page 8

DAM OR TUNNEL?

OUR WATER SUPPLY WHICH WORK IS NEEDED FIRST? MR, MORTON'S RECOMMENDATIONS Since tlio Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) made a statement recently about the work of probing for. foundations for the new • dam above the Morton dam at Wainui—the fust intimation, to the public that such a work was. to supersede the tunnel through which it was proposed to conduct the waters of tho Urongorongo stream—the oction of tho council in giving precedence to the dam against a new water supply has boon sharply commented upon in theso columns. One critic pointed out that if the dam were to be gone on with, Wellington must be prepared to chance three or four more dry summers, whereas if a contract had been let for the tunnel early this ■ year it would have ' been pretty well through by bow or ready by the end of the year. Speaking-to a Dominion reporter yesterday the 'Mayor eaid that he had always favoured going ahead with the tunnel as the first work to be done in connection with the water supply, but mentioned as the council's guide a. report which had been prepared by the City Engineer (Mr. W. H. Morton) as lato as March 17 of this year, in which .was set out fully the works required to be included in the expanded scheme of water supply, not only for Wellington but for the districts adjacent to Wellington. The estimated cost of the new dam , which would bo an addition to the storage from the Orongorongo—a dam to hold 8,000,000,000 gallons-would be ,£120,000; tho new 30-iiich main to the city '(reduced to 18 inches at Kilbirnie), which would be brought up Tinakori Road and by a tunnel through the Botarical Gardens hill, on to The Terrace, aad down to the flat, Jil!)8,0p0; extending the existing 24-inch main from the western end of tho Waiwetu tunnel through a new funnel to Wainui, i 30,000"; extension of the existing 21-inch" main from the western end of the Waiwetu tunnel to Morton darn, .£35,000; new ' tunnel through the Waiwetu hill to accommoj date new 30-inch main and to provide for the extension of the 24-inch main (as above mentioned), JJIS.OOO; alterations to existing mains, .£BOOO j acquisition of private property, -way leaves, etc., caretaker's quarters, ,£7500; ■; new tunnel' from George's creek to the Orongorongo (to accommodate a 21-inch main), with ,:necessary ' headworks, These amounts totalled i' 491,500, and with 10 per cent, added for con-' tingencies, ,£5'10,G50. That was. tho general outline of Mr. Morton's , latest recommendations. The Mayor eaid he had strongly favoured going ahead with the Orongorongo tunnel, so as to increase the supply by 100. per cent. If they had done that the tunnel would probably have, been through this year or by the end of tho summer, .but Mr. Morton's report and recommendations were very definite, and after lull consideration ho had advocated the construction of tho new dam and the alteration of the mains first, and to go. on with tho tunnel through to Orongoronga after such works were completed. .