BUILT ON SOLID GROUND
The bulk of Wellington's city buildings are on reclaimed land, necessitating either pile foundations or the carrying of piers down through the reclamation to a solid bottom. In the case of tlie Prudential, the building has been erected on the original solid ground, and no extra excavation has been necessitated. To provide for a basement, however, the average depth of the foundations is about 17 feet below the level of Lambton Quay, while at the elevator shaft the foundation, level is 25 feet below street level. At these depths it was inevitable that a considerable amount of water would l>e encountered, and to eope with this, tlie designers provided a system of subfloor drainage. This means that instead of endeavouring to obtain a dry basement by means of overcoming the very great water pressure from beneath, a system of drains is laid under the basement floor and discharge into a sump at a levbl even lower than that of the lift shaft.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19350411.2.119.7
Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 167, 11 April 1935, Page 15
Word Count
166BUILT ON SOLID GROUND Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 167, 11 April 1935, Page 15
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in