TOUGH BUILDING MATERIAL

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 287, 4 September 1928, Page 14

TOUGH BUILDING MATERIAL

REINFORCED CONCRETE One of the most potent arguments in favour of reinforced concrete as a building material has been given the many thousands of people who have watched the slow demolition of a building in Lower Taranaki Street which is being removed iu connection with the city’s street-widening scheme in that locality. A gang of men have been employed oif this job for the last ttv o months, and are likely to be so employed for the whole of this month, the chief reason for the length of the task being the strongly reinforced concrete floors and walls. Compressed air drills have been employed to weaken the structure and enable crowbars to gradually disintegrate the concrete from between the mesh of reinforcement, but it has been hard, slow work for those concerned. A brick building, with ordinary wooden floors, would have been torn down in ten days or a fortnight, but this type of structure when properly erected endures for centuries. The underground cellars excavated for the Levy structure have been refilled with the. debris from this building, which is being demolished by Mr L. Driscoll, under contract from the City Council. It is understood that the protracted nature of this work has held up the construction work in connection with the Levy building, which is being carried out by the Hansford and Mills Construction Company. This building will cover the whole of the area between Courtenay Flace and Luke’s Lane. The buildings between the lane and Wakefield Street arc not substantial, and could be cleared off in a week or two The fact that the new building line in this block is to be set back soma lfl feet from that of the contiguous block on the same side, it is believed, will have a prejudicial effect on business premises on that side, inasmuch as the shops that will face the set-back section will not be visible from Courtenay Place, as would be the case were the street all of the one width. Needless to say, there arc those on the City Council (as well as many off that body) who consider that an error of judgment, is being made iu varying the width of lower Taranaki Street.