FASTER FILLING

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1936, Page 10

FASTER FILLING

CHAYTOR STREET TIP

MOST SUCCESSFUL WORK

DESTRUCTOR MAY GO

When, a year or two ago, the Chaytor Street gully, deep, untidy, and useless, and by old style dumping made hideous, was decided upon as a site for a Bradford style refuse tip upon a large scale, it was , suggested that the gully would be all of thirty years in filling, but at even the present rate the made ground will reach road level long before that. Already the floor of the gully has been lifted by an average of about 24 feet, the filling in some parts being 30 feet deep, and because of the way in which the refuse is laid down and sealed with earth it consolidates very rapidly, with practically no subsequent sinking. From the eastern end of the area a roadway has been formed from Karori Road to the working level almost wholly on refuse and clay and soil sealing, so solidly packed as to carry fully-loaded lorries and trucks without sign of movement, so that now the work goes ahead a good deal more expeditiously than when each load had to be shot down from the road level and given a double handling. A TIDY JOB. The whole of the Karori Road frontage has been planted with shrubs and trees and within a year or two the tip will be screened from the road. Not that there is in fact any need for screening, for the outstanding feature of the Bradford system is its day by day general tidiness, in the greatest contrast to what used to pass as a tip before the idea of sealing down each load was hit upon by a Bradford engineer. Certain it is that a tip properly made on this system is less unsightly than the city destructor in Clyde Quay and much less of an annoyance to residents nearby. Possibly the Chaytor Street tip would better be left unscreened so that more people might see what is being done and might appreciate the soundness of the claim that is made for this system that it does transform waste areas into valuable levelled spaces. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS' SERVICE. The destructor, which has now been operating for something over 25 years, will probably be closed down altogether within a few years, and Bradford tips—there is one at Rongotai, on the Exhibition site, as well as at Chaytor Street—will then have to be established at several points about the city and suburbs, because for economical working it is necessary that the hauls should be kept reasonably short. When the announcement of the sites proposed is made those who live near those sites might well first investigate the work as it done today and protest—if they still wish to protest—afterwards. Probably there will be mention of the change-over from the destructor to the Bradford method of refuse disposal during the discussion by the City Council of the proposals to be put before ratepayers for the now essential drainage loan, for the destructor is part and parcel of the sewerage system, as the burning of refuse supplies, in/part,, steam for the pumping plant. Twentyfive years ago this system was the most economical available, but today the two requirements of refuse disposal and power for the pumps can be met with a big margin of economy by the Bradford system, which does give a return, and by electrically-driven plant. For some years past the steam required has not been obtainable from the burning of refuse alone, and a huge quantity of coal has also to be burned at the destructor. Electrically-driven pumps have also been installed for some years in the eastern suburbs.