HUTT VALLEY NEWS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 7

HUTT VALLEY NEWS

WORK GOING AHEAD Progress on Reclamation Scheme Lifting COO cubic yards of spoil from the mouth of the Hutt River in a normal working day and depositing it in great mounds, both draglines on the Hutt reclamation are now working.. At present the lines are beijig operated in low gear, pending completion of some power clutches which will allow them to operate in high gear and speed up operations so that the output of one of the draglines will be increased from 300 to nearly 400 cubic yards a day. Railways have been laid down ana small locomotives will haul the spoil, m trucks, to the positions at which it.is proposed to deposit the filling. Except that they work from the bO feet masts and are consequently much more spectacular, the draglines are eimilar to those used in the various shingle works on' the river. Both are identical in operation. From the masts a cable runs to a fixture on the other side of the river mouth, a distance of 000 yards. Along this a pulley with a grab capable of holding 1] cubic yards of spoil runs, controlled from a cabin at the mast, and the grab is let down into the water, closed and hauled up again until it reaches, a stop on the line, when it opens and disgorges its “mouthful” on to the mound. The process is then repeated. The operation takes just under two minutes at present, so that allowing for hold-ups and delays the eight hours’ operation brings

300 yards of spoil to the surface. It is anticipated that this digging will be continned for about two years.

The locomotive at the easterly maet io now working and the other will be put into commission shortly, although the spoil is of a harder nature than that at the mas-t near the pipe bridge, where the grab is well filled at each cast. One by one the difficulties'That have confronted the engineer have been overcome and before long the work will be moving along at full pressure.