BUILDING THE HIGHWAY
Constructing the Balclutha – Tuapeka Mouth Highway
Some notes compiled by W J Cowan, July 2018
For about three decades Tuapeka Mouth and the surrounding district fought long
and hard for a railway to serve the area. The story of this protracted battle needs
to be told some day as it is closely related to the construction of the above
highway.
During a visit to the area by the Hon. J G Coates, Minister of Public Works, (photo above) and
entourage in February 1924 for the purpose of viewing the country, which could
be served by a railway up the Clutha Valley, the alternative of a suitable road was
raised by the Minister. At a well-attended meeting at Tuapeka Mouth Mr Coates
asked the settlers if they would be satisfied with ‘a good road for motors’. He was
far from optimistic that a Tuapeka Mouth railway would earn its keep. The
Minister explained that it cost 13s 4d per mile to run a train and if the return
amounted to only 4s per mile this was far from satisfactory economics.
According to the Minister such was the loss on some branch lines that services
were sometimes reduced to the degree that they were unsatisfactory to their
customers. The costs of construction was another factor to be considered: a
railway would cost £15 000 a mile and a first class road £5 000 a mile.
Furthermore, a road could be built in about one-third of a time.
Before we move on it might be worthwhile to survey the delivery of services
provided to Tuapeka Mouth over the years until the 1920s. Medical services,
mail and provisions originated from Lawrence via a steep, sixteen mile road
through Tuapeka Flat and Tuapeka West. Balclutha was 22 miles away via a
reasonably flat road except for the climb up to Hillend. (It seems that a bridle
track was the only access via the cliffs beyond Moores Flat; the route of the new
highway). There was an irregular shipping service to Tuapeka Mouth by river
steamer but this was mainly for the transport of farm produce, fertiliser and
farming supplies.
District sentiment must have moved in significantly behind the Minister’s
suggestion that they should think in terms of an improved road via the cliffs
rather than an underused railway. A year later in February 1925, the Minister, on
another ‘swing’ through the district, re-affirmed his promise of constructing a
good road between Tuapeka Mouth and Balclutha to cost about £30 000. (At the
time there was agitation from settlers on the west bank of the Clutha for a new
direct road from Clydevale to Balclutha but this didn’t proceed).
Authorisation for the new highway must have been approved during 1925. A
progress report from the District Engineer to his superior in Wellington during
May 1926 provides some details of the new road which, for much of its route,
would have followed existing roads except for a new route at the base of the cliffs
near Manuka Island and across the Barnego Flats.. A survey had been completed
to the bridge over the Tuapeka Stream at Tuapeka Mouth, a distance of 21 miles
20 chains. The timber for 200 tent frames had been ordered and 50 erected. All
the workers at present employed were lodging in and around Balclutha. Sixty
three labourers and eight carpenters were being employed. Fifty additional
married men were to be added shortly. By the end of May it was anticipated that
180 men would be employed. A coal store, smithy and main store were in
process of erection. A quarry had been opened-up at 2 mile 65 chains.
In September 1926 it was estimated that the project would take two years
though it would be less if extra unemployed men were taken on. The road was
actually completed about April 1928 with Bruce County taking over maintenance
of the road, officially Highway No. 151, from October the following year. (It is
assumed that Tuapeka County took over maintenance of the stretch from the
County boundary at the Crookburn to the Tuapeka Mouth bridge).
It is of some interest to note the various items of plant used in the 1920s.
Obviously with upwards of 200 people employed there was much manual labour
involved in the highway’s construction. In 1926 use of a Dennis truck was
mentioned. But a major item was the siting and use of the Sauerman Bros
dragline excavator at the six mile peg on Moores Flat.
This thirteen tons excavator belonged to the P.W.D. and was brought south from
Tauranga in June 1927. Its operator, H T Johnson, also came south being paid
wages of 2/2 an hour. (In the Plant file relating to this project and held by
National Archives in Dunedin there are twelve pages of instructions relating to
the erection of this steam-powered machine). In November Captain Tsukigawa of
Clutha River steamer fame drove the excavator piles further into the bed of the
Clutha using a 30 cwt. ‘monkey’. When it had completed its work of hauling
gravel out of the Clutha the Sauerman dragline was dismantled in September
1928 and despatched to the Waitaki Valley where it was used in the construction
of the first Waitaki Valley Hydro Scheme.
Other machinery in used during this time included Wallis and Stevens and
Marshall steam road rollers. In early 1927 a Garrett traction engine was brought
south from the Arapuni hydro scheme. There is also mention of a Wehr grader.
(According to Google the Wehr grader was a light, one man machine made in
Milwaukee, U.S.A. and powered by a Fordson tractor engine).
A progress report in June 1927 listed the following major items of plant:
Collett crusher
Garratt steam tractor
Ford Grader (Wehr?)
3x Dennis lorries
Wallis and Stevens road roller
Marshall “ “
Chev car
Ford car
These service buildings had been erected:
Store
Office
Magazine
Coal shed
Oil store
Overseer’s office
The following estimates of costs for widening and regrading the road were:
Buildings and Accommodation: £2 765
Formation: 8 125
Crushing and Metalling: 2 725
Gravelling: 13 993
Contingencies, Supervision & Surveys
10% 2 811
Interest and Depreciation on plant;
assume 8% for 12 months on £10 000
800
___________________
£31 219
By this time most of the heavy realignment work had been done with the
exception of work at Burns Creek, 8m 20ch, a large gully, 11m 60ch and the
Waitahuna River gully, 12m 30ch. Regrading had been completed to 7m 20ch.
Metalling had been completed on various stretches nearer Balclutha. Gravelling
was also completed on some of these early stretches. Gravel was being sourced
from the town side of the traffic bridge and at 6m 40ch where the Clutha had
deposited some first class gravel. (The steam dragline was located at this spot).
This highway project, which extended over about two years, not only provided a
first class road to Balclutha but also created much-needed employment at a
period when jobs were scarce. Behind the scenes, however, the situation was not
so rosy. There was some acrimonious correspondence between the P.W.D. H.Q in
Wellington and the local office over how the project was being managed and
expenditure being controlled.
An early matter of contention was the number of people to be employed. The
Main Highways Board, through the P.W.D., intended the project to extend over at
least two years and did not regard it as a high priority. It was only given some
urgency when work was needed for Dunedin and Invercargill unemployed. Even
then it was envisaged that the work force would not exceed 100. Yet in a return
to H.Q. it was stated that 109 ordinary and 78 relief workers were employed on
this work. There was also a dispute over rates of pay being offered.
The situation didn’t improve. A strongly worded letter from the P.W.D. H.Q in
August 1927 to the District Engineer made it clear that there was considerable
concern over the project’s management particularly with cost over-runs. At this
point it appeared that the project would cost in the region of £66 000 – 67 000,
more than double the original estimate.
Instead of creating a road to a suitable standard the final result was a finished
road that ’is to railway standard of grade and alignment’. One sentence in this
letter said it all: ‘The costs that you give are staggering and indicate expenditure
uncontrolled either as to standard or supervision or costs’.
It would be interesting to learn if any heads rolled as a result of this gross over
expenditure and mis-management. The Main Highways Board, the P.W.D. and the
Minister responsible would have all been acutely embarrassed by the over
expenditure. What is known is that one of the P.W.D. engineers associated with
the project left the Department in 1928. There is a certain irony in that Tuapeka
Mouth finally received their railway formation but that it was in the form of a
super highway!
