ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 134, 8 June 1926, Page 9

ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

AUCKLAND POWER BOARD ACTIVE. PROGRESS OP RETICULATIOX. The general manager of the Auckland Electric Power Board presented the following report on reticulation to the meeting of the board yesterday :—

"At the present time the board has 31 gangs employed on this work, comprising 161 men, and is making arrangements to start at least one other gang in connection with pole erection alone. These gangs are split up into four jointing gangs, three underground cable laying gangs, ten overhead gangs, seven street lighting overhead gangs and four service gangs. The overhead reticulation gangs are employed on the following work :—

"Xos. 1 and 2, in connection with erection of the high tension lines in St. Helier's Bay and St. Helier's Bay Road. There is a good six months' work still ahead of these gangs in this area. "Xo. 3 gang is working on reticulation to Tapp's Quarry. Panniurc, but has now been moved to complete the reticulation of Ihumata. Tapp's Quarry is being handled by Xo. 2 gang, and we estimate that it will be finished in ten days' time if the weather holds goort. "Xo. 4 gang is working at Wilson's Estate, West End, and this will be completed In ten days' time. This gang will then be transferred to Lower Portland Koad, where there is fully six weeks' work ahead of them. "Xo. 5 gans is working nt Winstone's Estate, Dominion Road, which will take fully eight weeks to complete, as we have unexpectedly come upon rock which seriously delays this class of work, and, when completed, they will be transferred to Avondale South district to carry out extensions to the present reticulation there. "Xo. 6 gang Is In Puhunui Koad. Papatoetoc, with enough -work in sight to keep them going for two months. "Xo. 7 gang is working on Hill Road, Manurewa, and we estimate that they will finish in eight to nine days' time and will then be moved to Tamaki East to start the Howick line, and they will be joined by gang Xo. 6. "Xo. 8 gang is working nt Takanini. and they have fully two months' work ahead of them to complete. "No. 9 gang Is a gang knpt expressly to handle odd extension jobs, likewise gang Xo. 10. Both of these ganss at the.present time are almost constantly pmployed reinforcing the network to provide * for the growth of load that has been taking place, particularly in the suburban areas.

"With the r>*te at which our demand is increasing it is certain that we will require these two gangs on this class of work for some time to come. "When laying out the reticulation at the commencement provision has been made for subdividing the areas fed from the present centres as the loading demanded, and we are finding that this subdivision is being required much sooner than was anticipated. We still have on our programme the following reticulation to attend to :— "Howick district, which we estimate approximately will be commenced in August next. "Wiri, which we estimate will be commenced in June or July. "Weymouth, in October, by the gangs after finishing the Howick main line. "Bucklands Brach. also in October, by the gangs finishing Howick Town District and Howick-Panmure Bridge towards the end of this year, by any gangs that are available.

"This is as far as I think it advisable to go in setting out a programme at the present time. We have quite a lot of work which is not yet provided for. particularly the reticulation of some of our outer districts, such as Alfriston. Clevedon etc.; also, in every district which we have entered, extension work is being demanded at a great rate, and in many cases this ex-tension work has been placed ahead of outside reticulation, and it is good business to do this. SB we already have n civen amount of capital invested in these districts and by carrying nut these extensions we are able to make this amount of capital produce a proportionately larger amount of revenue.

"I did hope to place before the board a comparison between my estimates and the actual expenditure covering the work mentioned above. I find some difficulty however, in dealing with the it-ems se"arately. as it has not been possible tn tnkp the costs out in the same order as the estimate was taken out. but in comparing the totals the actual amount nf work done as compared with the estimated cost, the estimates have not been eNcepdprl in total, but tnkine some of the individual districts, for instance. Papatoetie. the estimate* hnvp been exceeded by approximately £100n • also. In the case of Manurpwa. hut in earn of these districts the work done is considerably in pxeess of the initial layout on which the original estimate? wprp based." In replying to congratulations n n his report, the genera] manager stoiert tint last year a peak nf is.onr. bi]r>wntt« ivns reached. It was estimated that 20.000 kilowatts would bp reached this year, hut already the load peak hnd reached over 23.000 kilowatts—nn Friday last. The growth of the demand fnr current in Auckland had been phenomenal. The report was adopted.