QUICK WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 7, 8 July 1938, Page 10

QUICK WORK

'RENEWAL OF MAIN

LENGTH UNDER PIPE BRIDGE

Working under considerable difficul- \ ties on account of cramped space and the handling of heavy lengths without the benefit of the lifting gear that can be employed in the open, the waterworks department's mains branch has achieved a remarkably quick job in renewing the old 24-inch water main under the Pipe Bridge.. When the work was first schemed out and the clearances were measured and found to be inches only in some lengths, it was thought that it might be necessary, to cut off the 24-inch main for as long as a month, on the assumption that the old main would have to' be taken out,, length by length, and the new pipes laid in its place, but some more figur-; ing and planning as to how two-feet ■' diameter pipes could be laid where there was not room for pipes plus working suggested that it could just be done. It was done, and the water was cut. off from the old length and turned into the new yesterday, with one day's cessation of supply instead of a month's. At this time of the year the other mains (a 21-inch from Wainui and the 21-inch Orongorongo-Karori main) would have seen the city through, and the artesian supply from Gear Island could have been called on if necessary, but it was desirable to maintain full supply, to meet any possible emergency. The old main will now be lifted out a'section at a time and run along the length of the bridge by trolley line. The next work ahead is the cleaning of the 30-inch main which leads from the reservoirs in the Wainui Valley to the Pipe Bridge, where it branches into the 24-inch main which has been renewed over the bridge and a 21-inch main, of later .date. The cleaning of the 30-inch main will be a fairly big job, and necessarily a winter work while the demand for water is at its lowesiJ.