TENDERS FOR RAIL TUNNEL WILL BE CALLED THIS OCTOBER

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 55, 15 July 1965, Page 8

TENDERS FOR RAIL TUNNEL WILL BE

CALLED THIS OCTOBER

Tenders for constructing the five-and-a-half miles Kaimai rail tunnel, east of Waharoa, will probably be called in October, the Ministry of Works project engineer at Hamilton, Mr E. Pollock, said last week. Most of the construction work of the railway and tunnel will be done on a contract basis, with each contractor making his own arrangements for accommodation.

Mr Pollock said that his Department had asked the Government to speed .up State housing in Matamata for use by married men of

the Department who will be employed on the project. Two light drilling teams are at present working on the Tauranga side of the tunnel and testing rock material for bridge foundations. " About two-thirds of the five-and-a-half-mile tunnel is expected to be andesite rock and the rest ignimbrite rock," said Mr Pollock. The new deviation will have alignment and curves enabling trains up to 150 wagons and weighing over 1000 tons to operate with ease. The Kaimai deviation can be divided into four distinct sections.

These are, the new railway yards at Waharoa, a seven-and-a-half mile approach to the tunnel on the west side from Waharoa, the five-and-a-half mile tunnel itself and a two-and-a-half mile section from the east end of the tunnel to the present east coast line at Apata. The total length of the deviation is 15J miles and is nearly on the line at which the existing lines on the east and west of the Kaimai Range are closest together. The new Waharoa yards will be sited about one mile

north of the existing station, and will contain some ten miles of marshalling sidings. The new line from Waharoa to the tunnel involves 250,000 cubic yards of earthworks, an overbridge to take State Highway 27 over the new line, an underpass for

Tower Road, an overbridge over the Gordon-Okauia Road and a 600ft long bridge over the Waihou River. A crossing loop will be provided just before the we X entrance to the tunnel. The five-and-a-half mile long tunnel will require the excavation of 380,000 cubic yards of rock, much of which will be used to build the approach embankment from the Waihou River. Some of the rock may be suitable for the production of concrete aggregates for use in lining the tunnel. The estimated quantity of con-

crete required in the lining is 130,000 cubic yards. The tunnel will be driven from both east and west ends. It will not be economieal to sink intermediate shafts along the line of the tunnel for work on additional faces, as for most of its length the tunnel is anything from 600 to 2000ft below the range. On the eastern side two maior river bridges are re-

quired. The first is across the Whatakao Stream immediately on leaving the tunnel and will be 450ft long and 65 -70ft above stream level. The other river crossing is the Wainui River, which will require a viaduct some 500600ft long and 115ft above river level. Two overbridges will be required for Works Road and Wainui South Road. Earthworks in the eastern approach total 650,000 cubic yards, including one cutting 100ft deep. Stock underpasses will be provided to enable farming operations to proceed with the minimum interference from the new line, though where possible the route has followed back boundaries to cut severance of properties to a minimum.