NEW WORKSHOPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 210, 6 September 1938, Page 9

NEW WORKSHOPS.

ON RESERVOIR SITE.

WATERWORKS PROGRESS. GARAGE TO BE ADDED. p Operating everything from pneumatic riveters to hammers, saws and shovels, busy workmen are erecting an imposing building on the site of the old disused Ponsonby reservoir. Under the general supervision of Mr. A. D. Mead, waterworks engineer to the Auckland City Council, the new waterworks workshop is being erected under the skilled guidance of Mr. B. L. Hamilton, resident • engineer in charge of construction. Xot visible from Karangahape Road or Ponsonby Road, it comes as a surprise to most people to realise that such a building has arisen comparatively unnoticed by most passers-by. The site is that of the old reservoir, built some 58 years ago, but never used owing to its subsidence on the Hopctoun Street side, due to the proximity of the gully across the road. It has lain idle since. Its walls are now being demolished and excavation carried towards Hereford Street and Karangahape Road, in order to build Uie new reservoir of 3.000.000 gallons capacity which will supplant the present one in use alongside. The rear of the new workshops will back against the retaining wall of the completed reservoir. The total cost of building the new reservoir and workshops is in the vicinity of £30,000, the contract being carried out under the 1936 Public Works Loan as a subsidised work. Later, on the side nearest Ponsonby Road, a large srara<*e will be built. " fe ° The erection of the new workshops began more than four months ago and will be completed before Christmas. The building consists of a smithy and workshop, storeroom, works office* and a social hall for the employees of the waterworks department, of whom there are 70 on the city staff, and approximately 30 employed in the catchment area. The area of the workshops is about 80 feet square, which will be enlarged to a block 140 feet long by 80 feet deep when the. garage is added. Built in reinforced concrete with steel trussed roofs and corrugated asbestos roofing, on the "saw tooth" type of roof layout, the building is provided liberally with roof lighting, and ia of completelymodern design. With the addition of the garage there will be a decided advantage as. far as the transit of the department's cars and trucks is concerned, the main entrance being from Hopetoun Street, thus avoiding the difficulty of entering from more traffic-congested streets. When it is completed some of the outlying depots as, for instance, Ponsonby and Grey Lynn, will be closed and the servicemen, who formerly operated on foot, will cany ont their work by cars from headquarters. This will assist greatly in the efficiency and speed of service work. When the new reserToir is completed *t3ie one which now contains 2,800,000 gallons of water will be demolished, thus leaving the frontages to Ponsonby Road and Karangahape Road available for shops and dwellings. The spoil now being removed from the new reservoir site is being used to fill in a gully, part of the scheme for the extension of Upper Kelson Street, through Hopetoun Street to Ponsonby Road, thus affording a new route for Auckland traffic to the western suburbs.