SOUTHERN MAIN TRUNK

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1036, 29 July 1930, Page 1

SOUTHERN MAIN TRUNK

STEADY PROGRESS BEING MADE 560 MEN ENGAGED spcdci_to the sry WELLINGTON, Today. Steady progress is being made on the work of laying the South Island Main Trunk line, and already, it is estimated, the charges against the new line are somewhere in the region of £200,000.

Public Works information is that a total of 300 men are engaged on the ; northern end of the new line, and ; 260 on the southern sector. In the South there are a good number of j cuttings to be opened up. and tietween the Conway River and Parnassus, j cuttings and culverts are In hand. | Survey work on the southern end Is , now In hand in the vicinity of Oaro, | in the mouth of the Conway. On the northern end there is now i a total stretch of track of about four ! and a-half miles. Past this length | of railway, formation work is well in hand for about another eight miles. The main obstacle encountered so far is what is known to the construction party as the ‘'Blue Slip,” an ancient slip of about 40 chains long (that is. half a mile in extent). Steam shovels and locomotives are now attacking this stretch of country, and when the balance of the formation work is completed here, a great deal of the remaining work for some distance will be through sandy country which is now being stabilised by planting. Generally speaking, there is no serious obstacle between this slip until the Clarence River is reached, 20 miles from Wharanui. Sufficient permanent way is now on the ground to complete the rail to the Clarence Bridge. The foundation for the Clarence Bridge Is now in hand, and the survey from this point has been completed for about eight miles below the Clarence River, while a trial survey has been pushed on for another eight miles beyond that again. The work between the Blue Slip and the Clarence will probably cost less per mile than any other line now being constructed.