EAST COAST RAILWAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 January 1939, Page 4

EAST COAST RAILWAY

WORK RECOMMENCED.

SEVEN HUNDRED MEN ON JOB

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) GISBORNE, January 11

Seven hundred men on the GisborneWaikokopu section of the East Coast main trunk railway recommenced work today with the prospect of seeing the greater portion of their job completed before the turn of the year.

If expectations are realised the Waikoura tunnel, of 76 chains, will be completed by May, and the coast tunnel, of 43 chains, will be carried close to completion. By the end of the year it should be possible for works trains to travel over almost the whole GisborneWaikokopu section. The main tunnelling job connecting the Waiau and Tikiwhata valleys is expected to reach completion in 1941, and this will bring the line to the point at which it will be ready to hand over to the Railways Department. The majority of the men now employed on the line, are engaged in tunnelling or on work connected with tunnelling, the Waikoura, coast and Waiau-Tikiwhata tunnels being the key jobs of the whole construction programme. Before the closing down of work for the holidays the distance between the two faces in the Waikoura tunnel had been reduced to not much more than 1200 ft and good progress had also been shown in both other major works.