HUGE GRAVING DOCK.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20273, 26 June 1931, Page 18

HUGE GRAVING DOCK.

SOUTHAMPTON CONTRACT LET. That the Southern Railway, are speeding up their docks extension programme at Southampton is indioated by the announcement that the contract for the actual .constructional work in connexion with the new graving dock at Millbrook Point* has been placed. It is reported that John Mowlam and Co.. Ltd., London, have been awarded the contract, and that they will act in conjunction with Edmund Nuttall awjl Co., Ltd., Manchester, the two firms joining forces in order to expedite the work. This value of the contract is stated to be in the neighbourhood of £1,000,000, while the complementary dredging will coat over three-quarters of a million. Up to the present the responsible engineers have devoted their attention to tho building of a retaining. bank round the site of the dock. When this is. completed, in a few weeks' time, the enclosed area will be pumped dry and excavation will then be commenced. It will be'necessary to excavate to a depth of 87 feet below the level of the top of the graving walls. This will involve the lifting of over 1,250,000 tons oX_material. and the work will be carried out by means of steam navvies and in timbered trenches. As soon as the excavations at one end of the dock have been completed, it will be possible to commence concreting, so that for a time the two processes will proceed simultaneously. The dock is to be 1200 feet in length, 135 feet wide at the entrance, with a depth of 45 feet to the top of the blocks at high water neap tides. These dimensions will make it the greatest dock of its type in anv part of the world, for the one at Beaton (Mass.), while of the same length, <a 15 feet narrower. The length of the new Cunarder will be 1018 feet, and her besm ItS feet, so that the dock will be m excess of the vessel's requirements and capable of accommodating !»»» should, they ever be built. The approach channel from the wet wUI dredged to u depth oj: 33 fcKi at low water.