DUNEDIN SPREADING OUT

Evening Star, Issue 18093, 7 October 1922, Page 8

DUNEDIN SPREADING OUT

ENFOLDING THE WATERFRONT. LESSENING THE RAILWAY , HANDICAP. DEVIATION WORKS PROGRESSING FAST. Sir H. C. Campbell, chairman of the Otago Harbor Board, and _Mr J. M. Wilkie (engineer) made a visit of inspection to the harbor front works yesterday morning, and courteously permitted a ‘Star’ reporter to accompany them. We aro thus in a position to give information which is of vital interest to the public, since it is their harbor and therefore their business to know that by the operations now going on Dunedin is to _be greatly enlarged, ■ and at the same time rid to a largo degree of its handicap of being cut off from access- to the waterfront. BLACK JACK’S POINT.

The work at Black Jack’s Point is to cut back the point about 40ft for a distance of 3Coft and to a height of something like 50ft. The cutting is-into very hard and closely-packed stone that is being blasted away, the shots being fired by means of an electric battery. Special caro has to be exercised in this operation, since the railway lino runs close to the point, and tho line must bo kept clear. If Mr Wilkie had plenty of room ho would drop tho stone in a face extending tho whole length of the 300 ft. As it is, he is compelled to start end on and make a side face. . This makes the cutting somewhat slow. Tho single railway line has two slight curves at the point. Both these curves aro to be straightened for the double line.

Between the point and tho Ravensbourne railway station there is a fine triangular stretch, of flat- reclaimed land now unoccupied. A road is to bo made on the line of tho telegraph, posts,- and between this road and the water the la-nd will then be available for letting on lease. It should form admirable residence sites, and will be available as such dm fourteen years’ leases at very reasonable terms. A point about this land is that it lies well away from the hills, and therefore enjoys a lot of sunshine. HALF-TIDE WALL.

Most of the stone taken from the snub of Black Jack’s Point is required for the raising of the half-tide wall. This' raising would have to be gone on with, whether tho stono was handy or not, since tho wall is at this point out of sight at low wa-ter, whereas it is supposed to be a half-tide wqjl. It is a bit of, luck to get the stone on tho spot. Some of the stone will be used for making the road above referred to, but the bulk of it will top the half-tide wall. To facilitate this wall-raising a loading jetty has been built, and a start is already made to ferry the stone across the I,oooft of water to the wall. Side-tipping punts are being used for that purpose. The Harbor Board’s men who are at the Goat Island quarry are to come up and commence this wallbuilding in earnest on Monday. They are to bring a hut with them, so as to live on the spot, as it is necessary to do this work -from half-tide to low water. THE NEW LINE OF THE RAILS.

Standing at tho site of the quarrying, at the height of the road, one can sea the line of the railway as it will appear when straightened. This lino is marked by a scrub fence, and heads for a point just on "the town side of the Cement Works, ESTUARY FILLING UP.

The use of the scrub fence is not, however, to guide the eye of the public or the workers or anyone else. It is to confine the depositing of the pumped-in spoil to that part of the Leith estuary on, which the railway is to stand and thus expedite the opera'tions/so as to Jet the railway builders in sooner than they could bo in if the whole width of tho estuary was taking the spoil. Tho spoil is tho stuff dredged up by “222“ and put through the pipes by tho suction Vulcan. Already the dredging and pumping have made a vast difference to the appearance of the estuary. It is quickly filling up. Tho scrub fence is effective. It is not, of course, holding tight all the material that is pumped in, but it does hold the bulk of it, and'the bed of the estuary thus confined is already raised fully 3ft_or more, with another oft or 4ft to go till reaching tho pegs that mark the level that the railway engineer wants. Observers, noting that the scrub-fence has an elbow in it, may wonder as to why it was not kept _ straight. The reason is that it is desirable to give a siding to Palmer’s quarry at Logan’s Point.

The spoil is consolidating at once. _ On the day it is pumped in as slurry it so hardens as to permit of being walked on, 'and carports say that the railway construction can begin as soon as the formation is completed without any risk of subsidence. It is from dredging berths at the Victoria wharf that the spoil is just now being got. At a depth of 20ft the Harbor Board’s men are coming across quantities of stream boulders, no doubt spewed from the Leith or a nearby creek in the old times, and this is making hard work for the suction dredge—indeed, some of the stuff is so heavy that it cannot be sucked—but it is wonderful how much of it the Vulcan has put through. Out of the heap abreast of the mouth of the pipe the engineer picked up one stone that weighed about 281 b. THE LEITH CANAL. At present there is an outlet from the estuary into tho harbor. Though the silt is raised, it does not yet block the outlet. Further pumping in of spoil will choke tho opening. But by the time that takes place the canal, now dry, will be conveying to tho harbor all the water that conics out of the Loith._ With that object in view, Mr lYilkie is pushing on the completion of the canal*by joining up each wall. About flOOft of wall will have to be built, counting iu both sides. At the fewer end of the canal the walling is of concrete slabs, Jiko those that front the esplanade at St. Clair. These slabs are to he finished off with a parapet. The connecting construction now in hand will, be 'regular walls, like the upper portion. Preparations are now being made lor pouring m the concrete to fashion those walls, and the bed'of the Leith at that uoint is--being prepared for a proper canal bottom. 'The men can work at this job only from halftide to low water. It is to bo hoped that no flood occurs to scour and break things down before this work is finished. THE EMBANKMENT.

The making of the embankment to carry the railway is now advanced in an easterly direction as far, as the boat harbor. It is intended to ultimately form this embankment to a width of a chain. Meanwhile, to ensure a rapid rate of progress, the •formation is only 40ft wide. This, however, will be enough for the railway engineer to work on. Mr Wilkio thinks that in about six weeks’ time tho formation in that direction will have advanced to tho end of the grassed land, and ho will probably then "top the further progress of the embankment at that end until tho estuary is reclaimed, which he reckons will be in about, eighteen months if good spoil is gob by the suction dredge. The permanent railway bridge across the canal is to be where the temporary bridge now stands. There is to bo a chain-wide roadway on each side of the canal to give access to the waterfront, with a. subway under the bridge. It is worth noting, as showing attention to economy, that there is hardly a bolt in the temporary bridge. Lashings are relied-on, and these can be cast loose. Tho pipe line to Lake Logan is left in I position. The greatest length along which .spoil has been driven in this pipe is 14.555 ft, with a rise of 15ft. 'At the city end of the grading, where | returned soldiers are working, and work- ’ ing well, the embankment formation is j nearing the old building known as MorI gan’s baths. The stuff cut down at that ‘ point is going in waggons to form tiic «mbaukment .near the estuary,

HANOVER STREET EXTENSION. A work that is being undertaken partly by the Harbor Board and partly by the City Council is the preparation of Lower Hanover street for ttie heavy traffic that it is expected to carry as one of the main roads to the Rattray street wharf. The temporary formation is being lifted' ori each side, leaving the centre for use until the sides are finished. Heavy stone is being put in as a foundation, and the drains are being set in. This is a promising bit of work to which much attention is being given by the _engineers of both bodies concerned. Visitors to the works should go to this spot and walk down (Lower Hanover street to see how it joins up with Rattray street. The operations as a whole indicate great activity—the determination to do something and have it done at once. We arc sure that any man who surveys the scene will gladly admit that the scheme must have taken a lot of 1 thinking'out, and that it is being most energetically prosecuted,