BORING INTO BEN NEVIS

Hokitika Guardian, 12 February 1929, Page 7

BORING INTO BEN NEVIS

' 15-MILE TUNNEL. GREAT WATER POWER SCHEME. FORT WILLIAM, (Inverness-shire, December 7. One can now walk for 14 miles through Reu Nevis, the highest mountain in Great Britain. The boring of a mighty tunnel 15 miles long and 151 t. in diameter is nearly finished, and a week or two will -see the culmination of one of the greatest engineering schemes undertaken in Great Britain. For more than three years the Caledonian valley here at the loot of Ben Nevis, has been transformed into .i temporary township. With the completion of the tunnel water will pour from Loch Treig lo provide power lor the British Aluminium Company’s factory, already a giant skeleton oi steel while the power house is also In ing erected. From flic base camp a three-loot light railway has been laid 22 miles up country, serving the dozen camps with material and taking loud and mails to the men. Rower houses have been erected to provide power for the tunnel soon to harness and release still more power from Loch Tlieig. Power is the daily •thought/ and probably the nightly dream of the engineers. A liquid oxygen making plant for supplying explosives has been in use at times; so Inis a “gun” for lining the walls ol tin* funnel with concrete; conveyors and steam cranes, automatic scoops and all kinds of mechanical contrivances have been assembled; all to one end—power.