WHARF SUBSIDENCE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 280, 23 August 1934, Page 4

WHARF SUBSIDENCE

Engineer’s Official Report EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE A report on a sudden subsidence in the breastwork on the seaward side of Harbour Board store No. 17, between the Lyttelton and the harbour ferry wharves, on Monday was reported officially to the Wellington Harbour Board by the engineer, Mr. E. D. Cachemaille. last evening. Mr. Cachemaille said there had been signs of subsidence in this breastwork for some time' and the work of making it good was actually in hand. An examination, of tne harbour-bed by the diver on Tuesday morning disclosed the facts that extensive sequritg had taken place, evidently as the- result of the action of the propellers of the Lyttelton steamers, that the depth of water alongside tbe breastwork is about 22ft. 6in., where it ought to be 16ft., and that the reclamation wall for a distance of about 95 feet had broken in several places and slipped forward up against the piles of the breastwork, which were now only about four or five feet into the ground.

This concrete wall and timber breastwork were built under contract in 1899, Mr. . Cachemaille said. The whole breastwork between the wharves was in a dangerous condition and would need to be reconstructed. In the meantime tEe area had been barricaded off, and all traffic was being diverted through or around tlie store. The hydraulic service pipes that supplied the Queen’s Wharf and berths to the southward were being diverted through the store, arrangements had been made to hire from the corporation a mechanical digger to remove as much as possible of the eartli between the store and the wall tx> reduce the load; and operations were in hand to make and drive concrete sheet piles along the face of the breastwork and to fill the gap between these piles and the broken wail with concrete. The space was too narrow to allow of employing many men on the work at one time, so operations would be carried on in two or even three shifts so as to expedite the work of reconstruction, and so as to restore as soon as possible- the breastwork for through traffic. Until the work had been more thoroughly opened up and investigated, it was not possible to form an idea of the cost of restoration, but it would be considerable.