OTAGO HARBOR BOARD

Evening Star, Issue 18337, 26 July 1923, Page 6

OTAGO HARBOR BOARD

FORESHORE OPERATIONS.

CREATING WEALTH FOR THE DISTRICT. The only unpleasantness in a walk from town to Black Jack Point is the mucky slate of the road near the quarry. The surface is slippery, and tricky for motors. Perhaps ; tho West Harbor Council will mend this one of these days, Meantime it is worth while to take the walk for the sake of tho exorcise, also to ace from the rise at Black Jack Point how the Harbor Board’s works are progressing. ESTUARY RECLAMATION. One can see that the spoil Rom Victoria Channel that lias boon pumped by the Vulcan into the walled estuary of the Leith has steadily raised the bed and turned a large area thereof into solid groitnd. This, of course, is pari, of the work that is preliminary to the straightening of the railway line. The estuary has to bo reclaimed and a wall built upon it. to carry tho new and; straightened length of railway to Black Jack Point, As a safely valve, a cut is left in the outer wall whilst tho reclamation is in progress. This is to let out any sudden fresh in tho Leith. When the scheme is completed this safety valve wall not bo wanted, and it will bo a simple matter to close it.

Until Monday the pumping of spoil into tho estuary was going on rjcgularlv every night. Then a halt was called. The level has been raised so' much that the scrub fence is almost buried, so the engineer- (Mr Wilkie) switched off the pumping into the estuary, and on Tuesday night started once more to pump into Lake. Logan—a job, by the way, that had to be shortly suspended for tho night owing to the power going off. If tho Exhibition Commilleo decides definitely to fix the site for Lake Logan, it is probable that this pumping into the lake will for a while be the regular task of the Vulcan, and in that case the pumping into tho estuary will cease for the time being. Mr Wilkie considers that there is about four months of such pumping to do before the estuary is filled. What does the cessation of this pumping mean? Is tho work there to stop? Not so. Tho proposal is to tiro away at another job on the same scheme—to start at Black Jack Point and go on with tho construction of a stone wall of sufficient width to carry the railway vto a point where it will meet the reclamation that is already consolidated. Tho railway line will just about follow the lino of tho pumping pipes. This can be clearly traced from the rise. THE TRAINING WALL.

Tho building of the railway wall will moan that the training wall will bo robbed of its supply of stone, and, as all iho stone which the Harbor Board con traded with tho Railway Department to remove is now removed, tho board 1 will have to quarry afresh. There is, however, an abundance of stone available on the upper side of the road at Black Jack Point, and it can bo inexpensively shot down on to the spot where the wall is to commence. Tho raising of tho training wall was a. secondary consideration when (he big scheme was started, hut, though secondary, it was all along recognised, a? important, and now that wo. see tho effects of partially elevating this training wall — in a marked improvement of the Victoria Channel and an appreciable deepening of the water on the Peninsula side for the, use of (ho harbor steamers—it is not likely that this incompletcd work will bo allowed to stand in abeyance for any length of time, THE VULCAN. Though built by Kincaid and M'Quecn as far back as 1877, the Vulcan, which was originally a bucket dredge, and converted into a pumping dredge in 1895, is still an effective vessel • in fact, they my that she seems to work as well as over. Certainly she has been a great factor in tho extension of Dunedin. Green fields, and areas that may some day carry warehouses, owe their existence to her. The materia! of which they are made would have been carried out to sea, at heavy cost, but for the scheme, which Mr T. 11. Rawson, then the Harbor Board’s engineer, devised in or about 1895. Ho it was who planned that Dredge 222 should bring tho spoil from the harbor to the Dunedin wharves and that ike Vulcan should pump it ashore, and thus fill up and create additional endowments. Hr A. Robertson, the superintending engineer of the Harbor Board, can tell the whole history of that scheme. .At the time it was propounded Dredge 222 lifted sis loads n week and took nil the spoil to sea, her deck hands having nothing to do but smoke their pipe? on those long trips. Mr Rawson. not forsecing the full value of his experiment, said ho would be satisfied with tho steppage of that wasteful system if the Vulcan pumped throe loads ashore and the biir dredge took the other three loads to sea. On tho first day that the new scheme started Dredge 222 brought in one load, and tho Vulcan had 1 it sucked up in about two hour?. Mean-, while Dredge 222 bad gone to the wharf, her master thinking that the Vulcan had enough to last her for two days. Mr Rawson naked what what the matter, and ho stirred things up. He ordered. Pledge 222 to work two hours’ overtime, and the Vulcan responded by disposing easily id tho extra spoil. Next Dredge 222 was put on to two shifts, and 1 still the Vulcan ate it all up. Ultimately (lie big dredge was worked three shifts, and even then could not fret the Vulcan into a sweat. .Since then Dredge 222 has lifted and deposited ns many as twenty-two loads a week, and the good old Vulcan has cheerfully put it through the pipes without, any trouTile. Hurrah for the Vulcan and her faithful builders, and hurrah for .Mi: Dawson, tho engineer who set her to her work! BLACK dACK POINT, Tho task of snipping off ilio noso of this point has been going on for ten months, and mw Mr Wilkie estimates that four-fifths of the work' is done. Willi two months of pond weather the job will bo completed. When it, began the men had to be verv careful to prevent any of the material from falling on the railway line. They did not dare to put in a big shot.. Now Hie face is about. 40ft back i from the rails, and the work is being ; carried on with freedom and expedition, j t THE LEITH CANAL. j Tho debris of the April floods is now j practically all cleared out of tins canal, j The walling is finished as far as it can j go in (lie meantime. There remains a gap j of 27ft on one side of the railway bridge j and 40ft on the other side. 'Hie job can- I not be resumed un-lil the railway bridge, is ; shifted ; the bridge cannot he shifted until ; tho railway lino is straightened; and! there is a further clement of delay in that Mr Blair Mason is to report ns to whether tlm carrying capacity of tho canal is sufficient in its relation to ilho discharge from tho Leith. If the canal has to bn widened a little, an nlten.tinn will be necessary in tho design of tho railway i bridge. THE Q SUED. At Rattray street wharf tho board is paif.tlng iu the foundations of another cargo shed, which is to be named “tho Q shed,” being alongside tho R. shed. Tho new shed is to bo of reinforced concrete, tho closed-in portion measuring 220 x 40 and the open portion about 150 x 40. SOUTHERN ENDOWMENT. As the loose stone wall that crosses tho head of tho Upper Harbor has been getting rather thin on tho outer face, the board has opened the Sunshine quarry and taken out a lot of stone with which to strengthen tho wall, and this work is now ; done for about half its length, locomotive is, being <mt to expedite the haulage. Much of tho stone taken from the Sunshine quarry is of somewhat poor quality, fitfeaked with rnuilocky veins. Tho quarryinen have now come to very much better stuff—a bluish and ciinkcry sort of rock that seems likely to stand tho weather and tho water. Mr Wilkio lias mado arrangements to start an air compressor for driving the rock drills. Steam loses its power yn the long pipes that are necessary in working on such a high face.

A NITER SON BAY LAKE, Tho above-mentioned operations are going on besido tho intake at Anderson Bay, and a visitor to the quarry is bound to impressed with tho beauty of this pictnresquely-plaeed sheet of water —that is, if tho tide is high. Some day, if spoiling hands aro kept off, this naturally* pretty place may bo easily and cheaply converted into a charming pleasure resort. Already it is spoken about that tho intake could bo deepened by a suction dredge, tho top end walled and made presentable, and gardens, sot on the margin; and (idealists say that such a scheme would not run into much money. Let this bo one of tho attractions to be added in the ncaT_futu.ro. Tho Harbor Board has enough obligations on hand just now, and is wisely making it a first duty to build up its endowments, and all other local bodies seem to he fully pressed financially; but when money is easier thin beautifying of tho Bay’s waterfront must be one of our duel duties.