BULLDOZER IN SEA

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30057, 15 February 1963, Page 8

BULLDOZER IN SEA

Reclamation Subsides

A 15-ton bulldozer working on the Lyttelton Harbour Board’s extension works disappeared under the sea yesterday afternoon after a subsidence of the rock-filled embankment on the seaward side of Gladstone pier. The driver, Mr "'Bluey” McDougall, had plenty of time to escape. Once the subsidence began he leaped from his machine and, with the assistance of the tip-head controller, managed to get out the winch rope before the bulldozer disappeared.

A diver will find the bulldozer this morning, if the weather and tide are right, and fasten a wire rope around it so it can be pulled ashore. This was the first time since the harbour extension works began that a machine has been completely submerged. The big Euclid trucks which carry the hard fill from the quarries to the reclamation works discharge their loads within a safe distance of the tip head, and bulldozers push the fill over the end of the embankments. Subsidences have been experienced throughout the project, and are expected, but the subsidence yesterday on the embankment being built on the seaward side of Gladstone pier was a little more sudden than usual.

The driver had adequate time in which to leave his machine and endeavour to get the winch rope connected; but because the settlement was quicker than usual, there was too steep a bank for him to reverse on to the reclaimed area.