THE BIG EXHIBITION

Evening Star, Issue 18716, 19 August 1924, Page 1

THE BIG EXHIBITION

OVER A MILLION FEET OP TIMBER ON GROUND. NEARLY ISO MEN WORKING. Unflurried activity is tho keynote at Logan Park. No noise, no shouting of captains, no bustle, but the buildings are extending and uprising, and Fletcher and Love, the contractors, say that the work is advanced well up to their expectations when tho contract was thought out—a statement that is quite believable from flic rapidity with which this section of the park is being wooded over. Mr Smith, tho dork of works, calculates that the deliveries of timber to date total 1,188,891 super, feet. already on tho ground. Of this total 110,000 ft lias come to hand since Friday. All this is native timber.

The first of the Oregon wood, about 80,000 ft, is now lauding on the wharf. It is Ihe long-length timber. The pay sheet to-day showed a total of 141 men,' of whom fifty are carpenters. Many of the laborers are extra hands for handling and stacking timber. Every morning more men are annlying than are wanted. Additional carpenters will be wanted inside of a month. The loss of time so far has been practically nil. At the very outset part of a day had to be sacrificed, and later on come of the men stopped for_ part of a day owing to the rain. Taking all the stoppages together, the loss has been less than a full day—a tribute to the mildness of the weather and to tho willingness of the Workers.

It is roughly estimated that the ironwork on the contract —fastenings, holts, etc.—will bo about eighty tons. The walla of No. 1 building are practically all up. A start was made to-day with tho job of raising the walls of the No. 2 building Tho roof trasses of those two structures are planned as a- job that will begin next week. Then the walls will be put up in tho No. 3 building. A little more reclamation is required before tho Nos. 4 and 5 buildings can be further proceeded with, tho foundation having to bo tnado (ip. The floor joists are on the No. 4 building This is to he of the same size as the No. I building. Both have been extended. The original plan showed a length of 350 ft. It is now enlarged to 390 ft, so ns to provide administration offices, reception looms, and to an.

The drainage of the rear portions of the site is an important preliminary, now going on all right. As viewed in the daytime, there is hardly any water in the main drainage channels leading from the back end of the lake area that is not yet fully reclaimed, but in the nights, when tho Harbor Board’s pumping is going on, tbesei channels carry a lot of water, sometimes nearly bank high, and two men are told off every night to watch these channels and sec that the scrub fences arc all right, so that there may be no invasion of water on the rite areas.

Only one horse is on the job; its task is to draw tho truck of material mi tho railway siding. The rest of the tramway haulage about the ground is done by men. The tracks have iron rails, and the surface is mostly level, so that horse haulage is not necessary. Only one rise has to bo surmounted, this being necessary bo as to ride the timber over the Harbor Board’s delivery pipe. _ . . New machinery is being installed continuously. Messrs Fletcher and Love will ha-e all’the necessary machines in position in about a month from now. ’ Arrangements were completed to-day for the insuring of (lie structures as (hoy go up.