WATERFRONT WORKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15140, 2 November 1912, Page 5

WATERFRONT WORKS.

BIG SCHEMES IN PROGRESS.

THE reclamations. " BUILDING OF QUEEN-STREET 0 ' WHARF. '3 The extent of the waterfront of Auckland city now occupied by harbour works in use or under construction measures over three thousand yards. Along this stretch of seashore tho Harbour Board has wharves, embankments, breastworks, and t reclamations. From end to end of it is e activity. 1 Tho constructional work most in tho eye ' at present is tho building of the Queen- 1 , street Wharf. Part of it has long been a, completed to the full width of the wharf, 0 For a while the left-hand or western porr tion of the old wooden wharf, with its * rickotty tees, has been used for shipping 3 while the wis tern half of the wharf has ._ been pushed forward. For months the t casually interested stroller has loaned r upon a, rail, facing tho east, to watch 3 pneumatic drills and rivetters. Now ho leans tho other way, for the wooden section, is railed off, traffic passes over tho new concrete roadway, and u.he Board's big , crane is pulling out the piles over which t thousands avo "WQ-ilcod on Sunday nights, fc The eastern half of tho wharf is almost 1 finished. It lias gone to its full length, I and the iron bollards have been firmly looted in the edge. Tho big goodsehed, which will roach within a few yards of tho wharf end, is quickly growing, too. Although the remaining wooden part of , 'he wharf is being rooted out tho tees will remain for some time yet, as they provide handy lengths of berthing room. , T* lo outer one will be kept in service, in ' fact, until the concrete work has been completed up to tho angle formed by the ; wharf and the tee. ■ Freeman's Bay Reclamation. Tho reclamation of Freeman's Bay is one • of the Board's larger works, and is making rapid progress, in epito of certain de- ■ lays which extended tho periods of some recent contracts. Nearly the whole of the sixty acres within the boundaries of tho reclamation have been raised to the fixed level of the reclamation. Only ono small corner, the north-east, is still below water-level at low tide; and only this fipac© and _ the corresponding western corner remains under the wash of the sea. Along tho inside of the northern boundary wall, a ferro-concrete structure, a rubble wall is being made. As soon as it is completed, and bridges a. gap in the concrete wall near the eastern corner, the filling up of tho low level will bo completed. The western corner will probably be done much earlier, as it is being embanked and filled with sandstone and other material provided by the excavation being made by tho Auckland Gas Company. At present there is one road over the reclamation, running in continuation of Beaumont-street. ' It, has been in poor condition through the winter, but is shortly to bo formed and properly completed by tho Auckland City Council. Fanshawestreet skirts the landward side of tho reclamation. It is not straight, and arrangements have been made to add most of it to Victoria Park, and to lay out a new Fanshawe-streot just to seaward of it. For some reason the strip of reclamation on which the street will lie is at present • a troublesomo area 'and js very boggy; and there may bo some trouble in draining it. The progress of the reclamation as a whole has been such that there is a good prospect that this summer will dry and set the now formation. It is difficult to say when it will all be completed and ready for use-, although six months has been mentioned aa likely to be sufficient time. Already the recent mud lias set fairly well. A small reclamation is in progress between the salt-water baths and the wall of the big Freeman's Bay area. It is being filled in from tho landward side, and is to bo used to provido sites for some of the Board's tenants, who have been dispossessed of their present holdings by tho ' improvement of Customs-street West.. ' i i | New Land at Mechanics' Bay. j Tho Board's second big reclamation is i that in progress at Mechanics' Bay, destined to be the new railway goods yard. Its ( border takes a line in direct continuation I of Quay-street, almost as far as St. Bar- , nabas's Point. Fortunately for the facilit;vtion of this work, tho Board has material 6 at hand at St. Barnabas's Point, which is ' a being cut away. A wall of sandstone, t faced with stone, is being made to enclose the reclamation, and is growing fast, and , dredgers are pumping spoil through pipes a into the area behind it. Up to tho pre- c sent, the reclamation does not show, visu- 1 ally, very much progress beyond the building of the wall, although a large, amount r of filling has been done. Various other c works of less magnitude are in progress, a including a small reclamation beside tho Hobson-street Wharf, necessitated by the a street improvement works. The Board lias authorised the construction of the western tide-deflector, an angled wall about 2100 feet long starting from the » centre of the seaward wall at Freeman's Bay, and running in a north-easterly direction. The time for the commencement of this work has not been fixed.