Work Started Today On Rail Duplication

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 791, 11 October 1929, Page 11

Work Started Today On Rail Duplication

FIFTY EMPLOYED UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF This morning a start was made with the duplication of the main railway line between Papakura and Papatoetoe. The work is estimated to cost £60,000. but this will depend oil the time taken to construct the new sector of line. As the men are all unaccustomed to railway construction work the cost may be more. Although the work has been started as a relief measure by the Government, not more than 50 men will ever be required on the job. This morning 20 men who were engaged at the Labour Bureau started work at Wiri, where a considerable area of rock has to be moved before the preliminary work can be gone on with. A few others were set to work at Puhinui preparing for a temporary, track. Two bridges along the route will have to be built and several others will need to be reconstructed to carry the double track. Two-way platforms will have to be built at Homai, Mahia, Takanini, Tironui and Puhinui. Numerous culverts will also have to be constructed. No camps will be erected along the line as arrangements have been made to take the men' to and from their •work every day by train from the city. Only married men, and particularly those with families, have been engaged to -work on the duplication. No estimate of the time taken to construct the duplication can be given. The distance is approximately eight miles. POSTPONED PLAN CAUSES OF DELAY THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Tuesday. As part of the scheme for the relief of unemployment the railway line between Papatoetoe and Papakura is to be started at once. The s'cheme will cost about £60,000. This was the announcement made by the Minister of Railways, the Hon. W. B. Taverner, today. Mr. Taverner said that this was work which might be regarded as being- immediately reproductive! in the sense that it would enable the Railway Department to carry on operations more expeditiously and conveniently. The department had been anxious to go on with this work, and had it on schedule for the present year, but because of the very heavy commitments with other works, such as the new Auckland Station, Westfield deviation, and Tawa Flat, the Papakura work had had to be postponed. With the new financial arrangements it had been found possible to carry out the work now.