HISTORY

■ Work began on the Kaimai railway deviation and the Kaimai Tunnel between Waikato and the Bay of Plenty on October 2, 1965.

■ On February 24, 1970, during the early stages of underground work, a cave-in trapped 12 of the workers. Eight men were rescued, but four lost their lives: James Smart, Alfred Thomas Leighton, Donald Alexander McGregor and Peter James Clarkson.

■ When Prime Minister Robert Muldoon formally opened the tunnel on September 12, 1978, he also unveiled two plaques set into a boulder beside the Old Te Aroha Road, near the western end of the tunnel.

■ One commemorated the opening of the tunnel, the other paid tribute to the four men who had died and others who had worked to complete the tunnel.