WATER FOR SYDNEY

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 December 1923, Page 6

WATER FOR SYDNEY

NEW ZEALANDER IN CHARGE. One of the biggest works of its kind in the world is the Avon dam, which is at present being built to increase the water supply for Sydney. Over 500 men are engaged on the work, which will cost a little under £1,000,000, and Mr. G. Haskins, a son of the late Mr. F. J. Haskins, extown clerk of Christchurch, is in charge. It is estimated that within two years the water storage for Sydney will be trebled. The completion of dams at Avon and Cordeaux will bring about this state of affairs. The Avon and Cordeaux reservoirs occupy similar sites, and will replace tributaries of the Nepean, whose courses, set in deep gorges, offer great possibilities. The first task which Mr. Haskins had to do in connection with the Avon dam was to build a road over the seven miles separating the works from West Barge, and then he had to house over 500 workmen and their families. The road has remained in first-class order after withstanding the heaviest of traffic for some years, and the township, with, garden brightened cottages, kerbed and guttered roads, is quite unlike the canvas towns usually associated with big construction works. The plant represents £llO,OOO, and is the last word in modern efficiency. Mr. Haskins, resident engineer in charge of the dam, began his work in excellent style, and has carried on in the same fetyle. Although it was started only in February last, the dam wall is well under way. It will be 200 feet thick at the base, tapering to 20 feet at the top, which will be 233 feet above the foundations. It is being built of Cyclopean masonry—huge blocks of stone set in cement concrete —-and, spanning the deep gorge, it will hold up 15 miles of river. The reservoir will have a maximum depth of 206 feet, and will hold more ■.than 43,000,000,000 gallons, or twice the quantity stored at the present Sydney reservoir, the Cataract. Mr. Haskins expects to have the dam, which is a Public Works Department job, completed by Christmas, 1925. To build so big a work in less than three years will be to set a milestone in the history of engineering. And it is being done by a New Zealander. The achievement is being made possible by the use of an invention for handling concrete. Named after its inventors, the Farnsworth-Haskins skip enables concrete to be handled expeditiously and economically from the overhead cableway. The clock is being worked round. “Government stroke” is unknown, and Mr. Haskins expects to complete his work at nearly £ 100,000 under the estimate. Eight miles away from the Avon Dam is the Cordeaux Dam. Many delays have been met with in this work which was started in 1917, but it is hoped that it will be finished within 18 months. It was on this work that the engineers had to “cut their teeth” ton Cyclopean masonry.