FOR WARSHIPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 237, 6 October 1936, Page 9

FOR WARSHIPS.

MORE WHARF ROOM. PLANS AT NAVAL BASE. PIXE-IftAKING IN PROGRESS. The making of concrete piles for extensions of the whal'ves at the naval base at Devonport is keeping a large number of Auckland Harbour Board employees busy at a "factory" that has been established on the eastern reclamation, on the city side of the approach to the Devonport vehicular ferry wharf. Here all but 14 of the piles required for the building of the new training jetty have already been made. They range in length from 45ft for the shore end of the wharf to 84ft for the bearer piles at the seaward end. The largest piles, reinforced with welded steel rods and .tipped with steel points, weigh 15 tons apiece. Many of the piles made on the eastern reclamation have already been driven at Devonport. The new concrete wharf which is to replace the wooden jetty where H.M.S. Philomel lies is to be in line with the eastern side of Calliope Dock, instead of running off at an angle towards the east, as does the present structure. The docking of ships will be facilitated by the new plan, as it will be possible to warp them along the training jetty into the dock without having to negotiate an awkward angle. The new wharf, 500 ft long by 30ft wide, will have the same width as the old jetty, but will be slightly longer. As the new wharf leaves from the same place on the foreshore as does the old jetty, the shoreward end of the old jetty has necessarily been pulled down, so that the concrete piles could be driven, but a gangway still connects it with the shore. The remainder of the old jetty will not be demolished until The new one is completed in December. Piles are also being made for the extension of the old Sheerlegs wharf, which is to be lengthened westward across Stanley Bay for a distance of 430 ft, to provide increased berthing space for His Majesty's men-of-war This work is to be commenced as soon as the new training jetty is completed, and is scheduled to be finished about the end of March or early in April.