MOVING A RIVER.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 November 1925, Page 3

MOVING A RIVER.

WORLD’S LARGEST TUNNEL. A gigantic engineering enterprise which the American engineers claim to lie an even bigger undertaking than 1 lie building of the Ranaimi Canal is now going on. To provide electrical power for t lie farms ami cities of California the Southern California Edison Company is driving a series ol tunnels <SH miles long and costing about £75,01)0,000, near the summit of the lofty Kaiser Range.

The S;in. .JojMjiiiu river find Rig Ove!-; ;(ir tu 1m 1 * diverted from their

and their waters stored in twelve reservoirs able to hold 734.00:1 acres a loot deep; and from these the water is to he dropped down the mountains through a chain of 19 power stations, which will lie able to generate 1.t00.0t.'0 horsepower ol electricity. The Floreiiu-e Like runnel, the first part of this tremendous task, lias been practically completed ;it has employed 1700 men for four years. It is the longest tunnel ill the world—l 4 miles—and will divert the San Joaquin river t;5 miles from its course.

The tunnel has been driven through a mountain ot granite 9000 tei-t above the plains; and the timnellcrs have spent long winters shut in b,v snowdrifts.