HEADINGS MEET

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1931, Page 3

HEADINGS MEET

TAWA FLAT TUNNEL. !■ MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY DEVIATION. WELLINGTON, August 27. A very big job entered upon its concluding stages when the second tunnel on the Tawa Flat deviation, two miles ’53 chains long, was pierced by the | meeting of the preliminary headings - at a point 84 chains from the Ngahauranga Gorge end and 129 chains from I the Tawa Flat end late last night, j the smaller tunnel having been ' completed, concreted, and part of the j track laid. All that now remains to be done is widening and concreting of the ' second tunnel, and laying of the track. | Though all this entails much more work, and the line will not he ready for handing over to the Railway Department until perhaps the end of 1933, the most apxious part of the job has been done in very good time, two and a half yearg. ! The line levels and distances c-alcu- ( luted by the’ engineers were wonderi I fully accurate for such a work, proving almost exactly correct. The ground encountered in the last few chains on either side has been of fine quality from a ' drilling point of view, hard hut firm, and drier than most of the ground encountered since the start of the job.

The work has been speeded up considerably by a shaft and pilot tunnel A shaft sunk near the Jolinsonville viaduct enabled work to he carried on at four faces in the big tunnel simultaneously*. The pilot tunnel, the first to he used in New Zealand, is on a very slightly- lower level, 66 feet on the eastern side of the main tunnel.