STAIRCASE GULLY VIADUCT

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27664, 21 May 1955, Page 2

STAIRCASE GULLY VIADUCT

PAINTING NEAR COMPLETION For the last six months a team of 10 to 12 employees of the Railway Department has been working up to 220 feet above the valley floor cleaning and repainting the Staircase Gully viaduct on the Midland railway line. slg5 lg 4 sk is , ex Pected to be completed next week. The viaduct, which is between Staircase station and Broken river, has two main spans of steel trusses each 200 Jong and .a high tower reaching up 220 feet—higher than the spire of the Christchurch Cathedral—and is 40 feet across at the top. The great structure had not been painted since before the war. Ingenious scaffolding arrangements have been used by the railway workers to make their job easier. On the tower a platform round the four sides of the structure has been suspended on a senes of ropes from a beam at the top. By means of ropes the workers have been able to move this platform up or down as they wished. So that they could come and go freely from their work a power-operated lift has been rigged up in which three men may be raised or lowered at a time. On horizontal trusses three platforms it different heights built up on two trolleys have been used by the workers. . Air pipes have been laid around the structure so that there has been compressed air available to operate tools like chip hammers and spray guns. After cleaning off the perished paint down to the steel where necessary, the painters have applied red lead by hand before finally spraying on a coat of red oxide. Taking into account labour charges and the cost of materials, it is estimated that the job may cost upwards of £lO,OOO to complete.