Power staff put in the energy

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 391, 18 June 1991, Page 9

Power staff put in the energy

A hard slog but a job well done, and within good time, is how King Country Energy supervisor Bruce Thompson described the Turoa electrification project.

The first stages of the project for the King Country Energy team were the alterations to the power line up Burns Street, Old Station Road, Railway Row and Soldiers Road in Ohakune. A new line had to be constructed across the farms of Mr Alwyn Greenwood and Mrs Kim Young, up to the boundary of the national park. From there the crew had to lay the threephase shielded steel wire armoured cable through previously milled bush to the Ohakune Mountain Road. The line then follows the mountain road parallel to it up to the nine kilometre bridge, where it crosses the road and continues parallel and just off the road up to the bush line. Because the line is through native bush in a national park great care had to be taken to minimise damage to the forest. The crews pulled winch cables through the bush in as straight a line as possible, hooking up to the cable then winching it through to the road.

Parallel to the road a four wheel drive vehicle winch was set up with a pulley system to drag the cable snake-like through the forest. Out of the podocarp forest a helicopter was used to lay out the cable from its drum with staff using ropes to pull aside branches of the beech and mountain cedar canopy to allow it to lay on the ground. From here it diverts from the road and is laid amongst tussock away from the road up to Massey Flat. Here it joins an existing cable, which was buried underneath the mountain road about 10 years ago, to the ski field base area. This cable was found to be damaged from culvert work and had to be repaired by KCE staff. A helicopter was used to lay the cable over the tussock land and on the skifield where it was laid mostly underneath the lifts. Turoa staff had prepared the ground to bury the cable in areas of high traffic and where snow groomers would be likely to damage the cable.

The cable has been laid in such a way as to be out of sight as much as possible, and in places where it was obvious, to bury it. Twenty two joins in the cable were part of the job, with a subcontracting company carrying out much of this work. KCE general manager Peter Till said they had allowed two days for each joint but the average for the company was two per day. He said the pace was due to new technology as well as the right attitude to make the most of the advances in systems. A difficult area was the spur line to the Jumbo T Bar which crosses a winter ice flow. Without special treatment this cable could be damaged by the ice flow so KCE staff dug down through early snow to pin the cable to the rock below.

Although it was hard work solidly through the project for the KCE staff, no major problems were experienced, said Bruce Thompson who supervised the ski field cable laying. He said the weather, while harsh at times, was as predicted. Bad weather did slow them up a little in getting the work on the farmland done due to access problems, said Mr Thompson. Ice in the latter stages on the mountain had also made work difficult. A gang of six Ohakune workmen, with gangs of Taumarunui staff made up the 20 plus workforce that worked almost continuously to complete the project on time. Dougal Campbell was the overseer for the job, electrical inspector Biruce Thompson oversaw the skifield work, Turnpage 12

Power staff put in the energy

From page 9 Ray Woods and the Ohakune gang constructed the new overhead lines and assisted in laying the cable, and Jim Komini and his Taumarunui line gangs assisted in the line construction and cable laying. The project was engineered by KCE engineer Colin Martin. Work started in February and finished on 10 May. The only major mishap was the dropping of a drum of cable while carrying out the skifield work. The drum was jettisoned from about 400 metres above the ground after the brake caught on the edge of the wooden drum and splintered, then disintegrated it. The $25,000 worth of cable, about 500 metres, was ruined. 'The effort by all the guys was tremendous," said Mr Thompson. "It was hard work but very satisfying for everyone and I think that includes the Turoa staff, to achieve what we did in such a short time. "There is no doubt they did work hard, and there was full co-opera-tion of all the staff."