Port Extensions On Schedule

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30445, 20 May 1964, Page 1

Port Extensions On Schedule

Work on the Lyttelton Harbour extensions was up to schedule and the first berth would be ready on the target date of November this year, the Lyttelton Harbour Board’s senior Assistant engineer (Mr J. B. Bushell) said yesterday. .

Mr Bushell was speaking to the twentieth annual general meeting of the New Zealand Institute of Quantity Surveyors in Christchurch.

The major task in forming the new berthing area for the extensions had been the use of rubble to ' “squeeze out” a 40ft layer of soft clay lying 26ft below the surface, said Mr Bushell.

This was necessary to give a stable foundation adjacent to the berthage.

Allowances had been made for the whole of the 61 acre reclamation area to settle between four and five feet, after the soft clay had been squeezed out.. The major part of the settlement process had already taken place, he said. However, further irregularsettlement would occur over

the reclaimed area as a gradual process during the next 20 years. For this reason it had been decided to construct the wharf with a timber deck which would allow irregular surface—the result of settlement—to be eliminated by jacking sections of the deck back to level.

Settlement of the area was also the reason for elastic flooring on the transit shed floors. The design of the breakwater—the result of extensive research—had permitted the whole scheme to be built at less cost than if a conventional breakwater design had been used, he said.