Chapter 6
I Construction During The Settlement Years
II The Use Of Timber As A Structural Material
III Structural Steel
IV Concrete Technology
V Housing
VI Industrialised Pre-cast Concrete Housing
VII Ports And Harbours
VIII Roads
IX Heavy Foundations
X Bridges
XI Sewerage
XII Water Engineering
i Pipelines
ii Tunnels
iii Dams
iv Power Stations
XIII Railways
XIV Major Buildings
XV Airports
XVI Thermal Power Stations
XVII Materials Handling
XVIII Oil Industry
XIX The Snowy Mountains Scheme
XX The Sydney Opera House
XXI The Sydney Harbour Bridge
XXII Hamersley Iron
XXIII North West Shelf
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Tunnels
The Snowy Mountains Scheme constructed between 1949 and 1972 involved the first large-scale construction of tunnels in Australia. A total length of about 144 km of large diameter tunnels were required and significant improvements were made to the rate of excavation and safety over what had been achieved elsewhere in the world (Andrews et al. 1964). All the Snowy tunnels were constructed by drill and blast methods. There was a steady improvement in the rate of excavation of tunnels from the Guthega tunnel (1955) where an average advance of about 27 m per six-day week was achieved, to the Murrumbidgee-Eucumbene tunnel (1960) where 97 m was achieved. The improvement was not due to any dramatic change in equipment or method, but rather to a number of small improvements. The long length of many of the Snowy tunnels, for example, enabled contractors to purchase equipment tailor-made for the job and tunnelling crews were together long enough to become highly proficient. In addition the work was undertaken under contract conditions, which gave incentives to both contractors and the labour force to cut costs by increasing the rate of progress.
An example of the improvement to equipment was the use of the sliding floor which was first used in the Snowy Geehi tunnel (1962).
The improvement of tunnel-boring machines has meant that these machines are now able to be used in rock that was formerly considered too hard for their economic use. For example in 1985 a tunnel boring machine commenced work on the Perisher ski-tube tunnel through granite in the Snowy Mountains.
Organisations in Australian Science at Work - Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme
People in Bright Sparcs - Price, Douglas G.
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Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering |  |
© 1988 Print Edition pages 370 - 371, Online Edition 2000
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/370.html