MAIN TRUNK LINE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 November 1938, Page 4

MAIN TRUNK LINE

SOUTH ISLAND CONSTRUCTION WORK. INSPECTION BY MINISTER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) BLENHEIM, November 2. The Minister of Public Works, the Hon R. Semple, interviewed on completing an inspection of the South Island Main Trunk railway construction work, expressed satisfaction at the progress being made, and said that the line would be at approximately the estimated cost and by about the time expected, 1941. However, this is still contingent on the continued satisfactory progress of the major tunnelling operations on the southern section. On the northern seci tion two tunnels are already completed and all will be finished during the coming year. The delay which has been occasioned by lack of the steel required for the big Clarence River bridge, which is to be 1500 feet long, has now been overcome to a large extent. A quantity of steel being fabricated at the Hutt railway workshops is beginning to arrive on the scene, and some experienced steelworkers formerly engaged on the Mohaka viaduct are now employed on the Clarence River undertaking. When all the steel is landed on the job the bridge will take nine or ten months to complete. The biggest remaining undertaking, the Amiri tunnel, is 'still making slow progress and the Minister indicated that the completion of the whole line hinges on this task. Mr Semple said work would be finished first on the northern section of the line, when the majority of the men engaged there would be transferred south of Kaikoura with the object of bringing about the completion of both sections as nearly simultaneously as possible.