WRONG SITE FOR BUILDING

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27036, 11 May 1953, Page 8

WRONG SITE FOR BUILDING

FRESH START MADE ON CAFETERIA MISTAKE AT NEWSPRINT MILL TOWNSHIP (New Zealand Press ' Association) AUCKLAND, May 10. After three weeks’ construction work, a large cafeteria being built on the new newsprint mill town site near Onepu has been demolished. It was found that the cafeteria, the first permanent town building, was being built in the middle of a planned roadway. Two survey pegs had been taken as the line for the back of the building, instead of the line for the front. The cafeteria, which will seat 400 men. will become a community hall when the mill town is completed and occupied. The concrete foundations had been completed, wall columns were in place, and the laying of floor joists had begun, when a halt was called. As the town lay-out could not be altered, it was decided that the timber and moveable iron in the building should be salvaged, and that the 80 yards of concrete foundations should be broken up by a bulldozer. When this was done, a large hole was scooped out and the broken concrete was buried.

It is estimated that the cost of materials and labour for the three weeks work was about £l2OO. A fresh start has been made alongside the old site. Workers’ Camp Moved A second change in plans is also under way. The camp for workers erecting the newsprint mill at Onepu has been moved two miles as the result of a decision made in February to change the site of the township. A pilot construction camp to house workers building the new mill town was begun on January 13 on the fringe of the Patauaki Maori land development block, near the site then proposed for the town. However towards the end of February, the Ministry of Works chose another site for the town, about four miles away, on the western side of the Tarawera river. Workmen were laid off, and work at the camp almost ceased. At present, most of the 40 single mens huts at this camp are being shifted two miles west to form a construction camp for .workmen building the mill.

It has been estimated that the setting up of the pilot camp cost more than £lO,OOO. This included the cost of electrical wiring building a cookhouse, store, and ablutions block, and laying water pipes to the river.