Purewa Tunnel

The eastern tunnel portal from the air, looking west

Purewa Tunnel is an 800-metre-long (2,600 ft) rail tunnel on the Westfield Deviation of the Eastern Line section of the North Island Main Trunk Railway in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located west of Glen Innes, in the suburb of Saint Johns. The tunnel is concrete-lined.

Construction

The tunnel was built in the 1920s by workers experienced in the 'hard school... [of] the notorious railway tunnels of North Auckland' (i.e. constructing the North Auckland Line). With the assistance of horse-driven carts, the mining workers, mostly British (with some Italians and Dalmatians in the groups preparing the approach cuttings), were reported to have made good progress, working in triple shifts, using gelignite emplaced in drill holes to fracture the rock.

The tunnel, while lit by electric lights during the excavation, was described as hosting large amounts of glowworms giving it a 'weird and fantastical' appeal. Miners reported that the worms, likely to have entered from the nearby bush-clad gullies, were unlike anything they had ever reported in a working tunnel. Further, the tunnel was also strangely attractive to large amounts of sparrows that came to populate it, living from pilfered horse feed and becoming quite inured to the regular explosions.

The Westfield Deviation including the tunnel opened for goods traffic on 1 September 1929, using the down line to Westfield for single-line working, but was not used for passenger traffic until the up line to Auckland was opened on 11 May 1930.

Later work

The tunnel has in the past years experienced some significant water drainage issues, which have required remedial work, and the installation of speed restrictions. In 2010/2011, tracks within the tunnel were being lowered to allow the required clearance for the Auckland railway electrification.