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Show 1965 ISLAND BEND PROJECT A key phase of Australia's Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric undertaking is the Island Bend Project currently being carried out by Utah in joint venture - for the second time on the Snowy Mountains Scheme -with Brown and Root (Sudamericana) Ltd. This $47,000,000 contract calls for 18-1/2 miles of tunnel, a 163 ft. high concrete gravity dam and five concrete-lined shafts with an aggregate depth of 2,000 ft. In addition two rivers, the Burrungubugge and the Gungarlin - aboriginal names typical of the geographical labels common in the Australian Alps - are being diverted by means of minor concrete dams and a mile-long 96" concrete pipeline down one of the shafts to the tunnel 450 ft. below. March 1962 saw the beginning of the excavation of the 21 ft. horse¬shoe section tunnel. Three headings are being driven and by early December 1963 the fourteen-mile mark was passed. In achieving these figures, 1,850,000 cu. yds. of rock had been excavated from the tunnel. During the last seventeen weeks of this period 18,000 ft. of advance was achieved. This consistently high average progress has been a feature of the Project. Best progress in one heading for a week was 508 ft. excavated in the Eucumbene - Island Bend Heading in the week ended 28th September, 1963. The tunnel is to have a flat concrete invert throughout its entire length except for those sections where the principally granitic country has required support. In these locations horseshoe section concrete arch will be placed. Laying of arch kerbing was commenced in May and the first arch was poured in November 1963. The concrete lining programme is proceeding concurrently with excavation of the tunnel. Excavation of all shafts has been completed, and concrete lining of these together with the building of an intake tower structure upstream of the Island Bend Damsite are well under way. 64,000 of the 76,000 cu. yds. of concrete called for in the dam wall have been placed and the Utah crew are preparing to complete the concreting programme and install the radial spillway gates early in the New Year. When completed, the Island Bend Dam will divert the Snowy River into the tunnel. This swift-flowing, snow-fed stream now flows over an almost direct route into the Pacific. This diversion will enable the water of the river to be turned inland, where via Lake Eucumbene and the Tumut- |
