PORT FACILITIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 7, 8 July 1944, Page 8

PORT FACILITIES

INSPECTION BY BOARD

SOME IMPRESSIVE FIGURES

The excellence of the facilities existing at the Port of Wellington for the handling of shipping and cargo, which have made the city one of the best-equipped ports in the Southern Hemisphere and the chief distributing centre of New Zealand, was made fully apparent on a tour of inspection that has been carried out by members of the newly-elected Harbour Board. Before the war many citizens spent profitable hours on the waterfront, but because of their exclusion the vast amount of cargo handled and the steady progressiveness of the port have gone unobserved.

The spacious wharves and wellequipped transit sheds are certainly a tribute to those who have been associated over the years with a farseeing plan of port 'development. There are now adequate and up-to-date facilities for the largest vessels to visit the Dominion. There are eight large wharves and practically continuous breastworks and seawalls extending over three miles of waterfront. The total lineal berthage space is at present over 22,900 feet (over four miles) with depths of water alongside- varying from 16 feet for coastal vessels up to 38 feet for overseas ships. Of the total berthage space nearly 10,000 feet is linked up with the Dominion's railway system. Wellington has the reputation of being the easiest and safest port in the Dominion for the handling and berthing of large overseas ships, and the deepest draught1 ships that have ever worked a New Zealand port have been accommodated. at the main wharves.

On the city waterfront there are 35 large stores with a working storage capacity of 55,000 tons, two of these stores (37 and 49) being the largest and best-equipped transit.sheds in the Dominion. For the expeditious and economical handling of cargo in the stores, 44 high speed overhead electric travelling cranes up to five tons capacity and other lifting appliances are installed. In the cool stores there are numerous electrically driven elevators, stackers, and conveyors for the rapid and safe handling of cheese, fruit, and other goods. Nine double hydraulic presses are installed In the wool and hemp stores. • LOADING AND DISCHARGING. To supplement the ship's own loading and discharging gear, Wellington's wharves are provided with eight electric cranes with a lifting capacity of three tons, and 77 hydraulic cranes varying in lifting power from two to twenty tons. On the wharves served with railway transport these cranes are capable of commanding roadways as well as railway lines; For handling specially heavy lifts there is the self-propelling crane Hikitia which has a capacity of up to eighty, tons. The wharves and breastworks are well adapted for the transport of goods by tractor and large volumes of transhipments are dealt with by the 43 tractors and 395 toilers in the board's mobile fleet. . • For' the safe and expeditious handling of fuel oil and motor spirit the board has provided special berthage accommodation for tankers, and the facilities of the port in this respect are far in advance of those in any other port in the Dominion. Wellington is also equipped with excellent facilities for the docking of ships. The floating dock,' moored at a specially constructed concrete wharf at Thorndon, has a lifting capacity of 17,000 tons and has proved particularly valuable during the war period. Recently a lift was made that established a new record for the 13 years during which.the dock has been in opera- ] tion. AOTEA QUAY BREASTWORK. The Aotea Quay breastwork,- completed in 1940, is a modern reinforced concrete structure 3680, .feet long, served with a double-track railway for nearly its full length, and has provision for future wharfside cranes. The berth alongside been dredged so that the depth of water available at low tide is 36 feet for the greater portion of the length, with a minimum of 34 feet at the northern end. Adequate provision has been made for the servicing of ships with water, fuel, oil, and electric power. Shed No. 49, alongside Aotea Quay breastwork, was completed in 1940, with a working storage capacity of 9000 tons. This shed is 650 feet long and 113 feet wide, and has-a greater storage capacity than the better-known Pipitea Wharf shed, completed in 1925. It is equipped inside with ten overhead electric travelling cranes, nine of which are of 30cwt and one of five tons lifting capacity. Six large semi-portal electric cranes of three-ton capacity, with a swing radius of 68ft 6in and a lift of over 100 feet above water level, cater for quayside cargo alongside the shed. These have been installed since the outbreak of the war and followed the successful introduction of outside electric cranes on Queen's Wharf in 1937. Anew shed, No. 33, to replace that destroyed by fire in 1943 has been built and incorporates all necessary equipment for the handling of cargo, and provides double the useful storage accommodation of the original shed. Three two-ton and one five-ton overhead electric travelling cranes were ordered for this shed in July, 1943, and are expected to come to hand before the end of this year. In the meantime the shed, is being worked successfully with mobile cranes.

A work which has just been completed, following the lifting of the E.P.S. regulations and the subsequent demolition of the board's airraid shelters, was the surfacing in concrete of a further area adjacent to Fryatt Quay breastwork. The area available is now over - two acres and provides a really excellent space for the handling of heavy cargoes, such as iron, steel, lead, and hardwood timbers. This area ,is serviced ■ with cranes, railway siding, and floodlights so that cargo of this nature can be handled as speedily as possible during the day or night. During the last two years the board has purchased five new model mobile cranes, three of which are now in operation, and two being due to arrive in the near future. These cranes are all of the modern petrol-electric type and have a lifting capacity, of five tons.' The last three of these cranes ordered incorporate the verylatest design for this class of plant, being mounted with a turntableoperated jib.

In order to provide improved weighing facilities at the southern end of the waterfront, the installation of a new weighbridge at the corner of Cable and Taranaki , Streets has just been completed. The "bridge" is of the most modern type with a 20ft by Bft platform and is capable of weighing loaded vehicles up to 20 tons capacity.

Recognising the advantage to be gained by the use of echo sounding equipment for taking rapid soundings, the board has lately installed a firstclass machine of this type on the pilot launch Uta. Thus, for all future major surveys of the harbour, the tedious hand-sounding methods of the past will be eliminated.

In order to improve the working of the board's hydraulic pumping station and to overcome the smoke nuisance which has for many years been a trial to residents in the vicinity, the hpard has authorised the purchase of two electricslly-driven pumping units, and these are due to arrive in the next few months. It is intended, .provided these two units prove satisfactory, that a third will be obtained, which will enable the board to dispense entirely with the existing . coal-fired steam boilers and pumps.