The present concrete-cored earth dam was built in 1931 to form Lake Mangamahoe and its water, taken from the Waiwhakaiho River and the Mangamahoe Stream, is conveyed through tunnel and penstocks to the power station on the Waiwhakaiho River at the Meeting of the Waters. TrustPower (now Manawa Energy) operates the complex.
Offer in 1997 (Walls for Water, pp 87-91) highlights the technical innovations of the 1931 concrete-cored Mangamahoe earth dam, of which he says “the twenty-four-metre-high Mangamahoe dam near New Plymouth stands out as an example of the transition from the puddle clay core form of dam to the modern rolled fill type dam.”.
The curved concrete core wall for the Mangamahoe dam was constructed ahead of the supporting earthworks and was temporarily supported by props on the 'upstream' side.
Related document:
The Alchemy of the Engineer: Taranaki Hydro-electricity, Ron Lambert (2015).
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