SOUTHERN RESERVOIR

Evening Star, Issue 18035, 1 August 1922, Page 8

SOUTHERN RESERVOIR

INSPECTION BY GOUHCILIjORS. MORE THAN A THIRD OF THE EXCAVATING DONE. Yesterday afternoon Crs&eggi,Hancock, Shaddock. and Laniaoh, accompanied! by Mr WOurdio (city engineer), visited the Southern Reservoir .to. see bow Hie enlargement is getting on. Mr Harold King, who is in. charge, m-qt the party, < showed them round. , » The present position \s than Hie work ot extending the rim of the big haam w completed'. and the two electric ato ripping out what is known ns tho otStT This peans, that, the hed of the old reservoir is,being cut into. The depth ot tha cut varies. One of the diggers was yesterday on a 22ft face, the other on MrV'Curdio estimates that the cutting done is between "a third and >W° ,- total job. Forty men are at - six on the regular day shift and four being occupied at, night in shifting rails and bo forth so ns. to have.no stoppages. dum g a day. The present .output is at tho rati of about 450 cubic yards per day. A higher speed will be .pebble m a week o two, Mr King iis a>. piling the layout as to make the operations easier as met with varies very much. Stiff day preponderates, but it is diversified with seams of gravel, blue marl that seta very hard, hematite, coal, and rotten rock. Boulders of-bluestone, large and small, are met with in nearly every load. All of -any size are pulled! aside and stacked separately, .to be hereafter crushed mid used in the making oE concrete. One man is employed in sledging this stone to a convenient place.. , , ~ Ihe depositing, now gives no trouble. The material is being shot on top of a bench that .is nigh to the edge ot the reservoir When 1 that is filled to the required level the stuff will lie pitched- ovei into a golly 70ft deep, and wide enough to take the lot. By the time the operations are finished that portion of, the gully that is within Dio corporation s ground will be just about -kvelled'-that is the calculation. The woik is most interesting to watch. It is well systematised, and the men are working industriously. There are four men to operate the two electric diggers, each working for about an hour anda-half, then getting 0 a rest. Tho machine-man has to be at tension, physically and mentally, if ho is to get the best work of the digger and keep all the gangs fed continuously, and l he could not keep going all the time. The four men to whom this, important duty is assigned have been trained to the work hero. The electric shovel twists and screws about like ft living thing so as to get its jaws on to the most convenient mouthful. With an upward motion it tears out the bite, then swings it round and gently deposits it into the waggon. Two bites suffice to fill a waggon. As each waggon is loaded it runs by gravitation to a point at the foot of the valve tower, and is then pulled up a railed incline by an electric winch. Three men then seize hold and run it to the top, then give it a shove, and it moves along to the descent, on which it is steadied by a wire, rope till it reaches the point from which it can slip along to the loading. There, being two divergent tracks on the summit, one car ' T oes one way and the next the other way.°so that there are two points of delivery on tho same lino. It is heavy work—not comparable with the old-style nawying, but still heavy, and men of weight are needed, otherwise they could not pull the trucks about expeditiously. They evidently work on a good understanding. In the hour that the visitors spent there not the sign of a hitch arose, nor did there seem to be anything to cans© a hitch. Most of the men live nearby, - but all have their midday meal an the works.