WAITAKI WORKS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 94, 11 December 1931, Page 6

WAITAKI WORKS

NATURE RESISTS FLOODS AND BAD WEATHER PUT BACK COMPLETION SIX MONTHS. SUSPENSION SUGGESTED. With 1000 men working in three shifts a day, the construction of the dam at the Waitaki hydro-electric works at Kurow, on the border of Canterbury and Otago, has made rapid progress in the past few months. Owing to floods and bad weather, [ however, it will be impossible for the works to be finished until about the middle of 1933 at the earliest — six months or more later than the original estimate. Public finances, too, may check its progress. Nature has displayed some of her most capricious moods during man's struggle for supremacy over the turbulent Waitaki River. The colossal task of diverting the swift-flowing stream into half its normal course, and finally harnessing its waters altogether, has already occupied more than two years, and is stil far from | finished. The greater part of another two years will pass before the turbines are generating power at Waitaki for distribution through Otago and part of Canterbury. Floods and bad weather have delayed the woidc and hampered the efforts of the men to build the dam. In FAbruary this year a particularly severe "fresh" raised the level of the water suddenly and swept away part of the works, including a trestle bridge over which the men travelled from the camp to the workings at the dam. Pressure of Floods. Half of the river was already blocked, and the wall built to a h eight some feet above the normal level of the water. The speed of the current was naturally increased, and the flood in the upper reaches made it race through the narrow channel at a terrific pace. Early one morning -the bridge crashed into the stream, taking with it part of the equipment used for the workings. This check to the steady progress that was then being made meant a vital delay in the construction of the dam. Like quite a number of south-

ern rivers, the snow-fed Waitaki is at its lowest level during the winter months. The engineers had planned to black the second half when the water was low. The delay caused by the flood made this impossible, and the winter of 1931 went by without the sheet-piling being driven to the river-bed to stem' the current. It must now wait uijtil next winter. Meanwhile, the first half of the wall is being built up to its full height, and the construction of the powerhouse on the other side of the river is steadily going ahead. Test to Come. The test of the Waitaki works will come when the second half of the river is bloclced. The water will then pass through temporary sluiceways that have been built in the first part of the wall. These sluiceways may or may not carry the volume of water required of them. Their real test will be in the event of a flood. Engineers are confident there will be no trouble. But they cannot tell. As one of them said recently when discussing the job, "When you are dealing with water you are never quite sure what will happen, nor can you fully appreciate the extent of your opposition. We cannot tell how the Waitaki will behave until we have tested it." The progress that has so far been made at Kurow is regarded by the Public Works Department as satisfaccory. The most difficult portion of the work has yet to he done. Work May Cease. A suggestion has been made that this job will be closed up, if not suspended, in the near future, owing to the Government's policy of reducing expenditure on Public Works throughout the Dominion. Authority was given in the session just closed for raising £3,000,000 for Public Works and general purposes. Last year the Government required £9,000.000. Thp

-nference fi*om a comparison of the figures is that many Public Works jobs will suffer, and that many men will be transferred from the works in which they are now engaged. Such a policy is almost inevitable, as the Minister of Public Works, the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, intimated in his statement to Parliament a month ago that necessary pruning would he uniertaken throughout the Department. Whether or not the Waitaki hydroworks will be slowed up the Department cannot at the present time indicate. "I should think this would oe one of the last works to be affected, an officer of the Department said . "It seems from the Minister's statement that some economies have to be made in accordance with the general reducing policy; but as we are working to a schedule and timing our operations to coincide with seasonal changes, the job at Kurow should, I think, be allowed to proceed until it is absolutely imperative to suspend it." Continuous Work. There are nearly 1000 men working at the Waitaki hydro works at the present time. Three shifts a day are necessary, because the sumps which keen ^ the seejjage water from the workings have to be kept going continuously, and the work of building up the great dam. never ceases. All through the night gigantic floodlights illuminate the construction works. Men crawl like bees about the massive block of concrete which is slowly but steadily rearing its head

skyward. Throughout the day the other gangs of men are similarly engaged, Always the work goes on. Next winter,^ when the level of the water is at its lowest, the sheet piling will be driven forty feet into the river bed, and the current diverted. If this step is a success the final stage in the work will be- undertaken. It will he impossible to have it finished within the estimated time — the end of 1932 — but the Department is hopeful that if the last portion of the dam is begun in July of next year, the middle of 1933 should see the scheme ready to operate. Ultimately, the Waitaki scheme will take a great deal of the load now earried from Lake Coleridge, and will send current through a great part of Otago, joining with the Waipori scheme in supplying power to a great j part of the east coast of tfre South ' Island.