[1] In December 1928, on behalf of the PWD, he took part in an inspection of the Graves-Talbot track, from the head of Lake Wakatipu to Milford Sound, by way of the Hollyford Valley.
[10] In 1939, Beck gave an address to the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand, giving details of the initial research and planning for the RDR project, describing its design as a combined irrigation and electricity generation scheme.
It was reported that Beck telephoned the Minister of Public Works (Semple), and assured him that despite the difficulties caused by the slip, the water race would be completed.
[10] The solution used sections of large diameter concrete pipe to create an underground syphon, carrying the water race through the unstable area.
[13][14] During a visit to the site on 19 October 1940 while construction was taking place, Semple had a photograph taken of himself and his ministerial car inside one of the large pipe sections.
[16] In April 1940, Beck was appointed to the position of district public works engineer in Christchurch, succeeding Fritz Langbein who had been promoted.
[17][18] Beck became involved in a controversial project in 1941, working with Bob Semple to create a locally-built armoured fighting vehicle for military purposes.
In responding to criticism, Bob Semple defended the initiative and commended the work of Beck and his team, saying:[19] That tank was an 'honest to God' attempt to do something with the material at our disposal, when raiders were at our back door.
Instead of sitting down and moaning, we felt we ought to do something to manufacture weapons that would help to defend our country and our people.Beck was transferred to Wellington in 1942,[1] and was later promoted to Assistant Engineer-in-Chief of the PWD.