COMPLICATED WORK

Evening Post, Issue 30, 4 August 1936, Page 10

COMPLICATED WORK

MAIN SEWER REPAIRS

PIPES LAID 40 YEARS AGO

A, complicated piece of work, the renewal of a length of sewage rising main serving the whole of the city area, is being completed in Wakefield Street after. between three and four months of work.

This section of the main, running from near the Public Library through Farish, Herbert, and Dixon Streets to the head of the larger sewage main at Willis Street, was laid about forty years ago,, and during the past few years has occasioned a good deal of trouble and . inconvenience of an unpleasant nature through frequent breakages. Later in the year a proposal that a. loan of a substantial amount should be raised to bring the city drainage system up to date will be put before the ratepayers, but this work was too.urgent to admit of any delays.

Apart from. the compications arising from the fact that the old main had to be removed and replaced a length or two at a time, in order that traffic flow should not be too greatly interfered with, there has been a further, difficulty in that the records of lorty years ago did not exactly indicate the' location of the main, which had to be determined by excavation. After it was found measurements for the heavy (21-inch) cast-iron junctions were taken and the trenches were filled in while the castings were being made. These special castings are now ready and the trenches have been reopened for the making of the'actual connections.

When this is done it is unlikely that further trouble on this section will be experienced, but further work will probably be necessary on other sections, which, through old age, are suspected of being in a defective condition. Drainage work is expensive, but it is one city work which definitely may not be neglected or delayed beyond its time, for the whole well-being of the city depends directly upon the proper functioning of the system.