Main Bluff Harbour Job Nearly Finished

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29235, 20 June 1960, Page 12

Main Bluff Harbour Job Nearly Finished

(New Zealand Press Association)

INVERCARGILL, June 19. Al the end ef this week, the contractors, Soeiete Nationale de Travaux PnbUca (SJt.TJP.), expects to. make the last pour - of concrete In the construction of Bluffis 84-aere island harbour. It will be the end of. the main work on a scheme so bold in its conception that it has attracted world-wide attention, and the French firm Is net alone in viewing with pride the product of about 44 months* labour and in noting the absence throughwri of Industrial trouble. , The peak labour force employed on the job by S.N.TJ*. was 250 men and the average was 180. The firm now has only about 40 men. AU the Chinese and half the Belgian dredge crews have gone. Moot of the remaining Workers are New Zealanders. - The final pour ot concrete on the access bridge win not end the contractors’ Interest -in the big project There is a maintenance period of six months and a gang will also be left to dean up, the project manager (Mr MChevalier) said today. Mr Chevalier will return to Paris in August His assistant, Mr K. Davis, will remain for some time to see to the disposal of plant and the dismantling of temporary installations. All the equipment was new when It was brought on to the job and it was valued then at nearly £400.000, excluding the dredges. Some of the gear, such as dumpers, and quarrying and concreting plant, was going to a North Island project in which S.N.T.P. is indirectly connected, Mr Chevalier said. The suction dredge Rupel of nearly 1000 tons will leave Bluff at the end of the month for Port Chalmers. A deep sea tug owned by a Dutch firm that specialises in towing work t will arrive in mid-July to tow the dredge to Antwerp, The smaller suction dredge LaneviUe, which was manned by Chinese, has been dismantled ready to be shipped overseas. Most of the men now working for S.N.T.P. will be at Bluff until about the end of July packing gear and dismantling installations such as the temporary access bridge, The construction of the island was completed on time and the dredging was only about two months behind schedule, Mr Chevalier said. Three pours, totalling about 250 cubic yards of concrete, will complete the decking of the access bridge not three months behind schedule. In the course of the project the contractors have dredged 2,625,000 cubic yards of material, driven about 10.000 tons of sheet piling, poured about 25.000 cubic yards of concrete and carted 250.000 tons of rock from a quarry on Bluff hill.

It is hoped that the first two cargo sheds will be ready in

November and the other two in the first half of next year. The 12 oyster sheds are half completed. The last coat will be put on the island roads next sealing season. The design of the all-weather meat loading plant wai almost completed and it was hoped the plant would be ready for the 1961-62 season, the Southland Harbour Board's secretary (Mr N. D. Cullen) said today. Tenders would be called for the waterside amenities building and it was hoped construction of the board’s administration block will begin soon, he said. Electrical reticulation is about to begin and railway work will be intensified on completion of the access bridge. Until the first cargo sheds are completed, however, the new berths will be useful only as overflow or lay-up berthage, if required.