Roxburgh Dam

Roxburgh Dam was commissioned 1956 - 1962. It's a concrete gravity dam built with 1.5 million tonnes of concrete—much of it poured by hand. The dam is on the Clyde River—NZ's largest river, running 338km from Lake Wanaka to the Pacific. 

The surrounding landscape is spectacular, with schist walls towering over the road.

The downriver side of the dam.

One of the three slipways, showing only a trickle of water being allowed through.

The dam is 76 metres high, and 358 metres long. A contract was given to an English firm for £8.6 million. It seems they lacked experience in building dams and when it was eventually decided they were not meeting deadlines, the contract was moved to a New Zealand firm, Downer & Co. The workforce was cut from 1107 to 850 and things progressed under the improved management. The eventual cost of the dam was almost three times the original contract. £24.1 million. Which just goes to show that the lowest bid is not necessary the best!

You're not allowed to stop on the dam, so I had to jump out and quickly take some photos while Dave drove off to find a turning spot. Yes, he came back for me!

This orange log barrier appears to be doing a good job here . . .

. . . but not so good in the other direction. You can see several logs have managed to slip through.

 Some more views of the three slipways . . .

 . . . but not much water passing through them today.

Where it all goes. The warning says, "Danger—220,000 volt lines overhead".

Lake Roxburgh, formed by the dam, extends for almost 30 km towards Alexandra. It's run by eight turbines—the eight penstocks are easily seen in this photo.

Looking downriver.

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