THE EASTERN RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19143, 8 October 1925, Page 14

THE EASTERN RAILWAY.

FOm HUNDRED MEN AT WORK. STEADY PROGRESS MADE. CONCENTRATION AT ORAKEI. PREPARING STATION CUTTING. One hundred men from the railway construction works at Whsngarei arrived at Auckland recently to augnyent the gangs at work on the now eastern railway deviation to Westfield. With 400 men now concentrated on this important undertaking, rapid progress is being made with the construction oi earthworks and tunnelling, and there is every reason to expect the job to be completed" and trains running by March, 1928, when the estimated time period of three years expires. Campbell's Point, where the line wiD issue from fjie new railway station yards, is slowly boung demolished by steam shovels, and fcfee drive through the cliff, for the purpose- of hastening the breakingdown is practically finished. The tunnellers are busy putting through a vertical shaft, iSOft. high, to ibe top of the cliff. This, aJso, is a temporary de- " vice to assist in breaking-down the point, as it will be possible to run trucks right unde.- the cliff arid fill them with spoil shovelled down from the widening sides of the shaft. The 30ft. embanknneht across Judge's Bav has been carried approximately onethird the distance Campbell's Point and Point Resolution. To the untrained eye, progress this portion of the work appears t© ; be slow, but this is because a tremendous amount of filling has had to be dumped below the cliff to enlarge/ the embankment to a width of 100 ft to carry .the 12 sets of tracks that converge in two. main tracks across the bay. Constructing Stone Seawalls. Another essential piece of woi'k on which a good start- has been made is the stonewall which is to protect the outer sr.de of the earthen embankment frojm erosion by the sea. Scoria rock in large quantities is arriving at Campbell's Paint from the volcanic area round Mount Wellington and is being tipped into the water to form the wall that will precede \tlie embankment as it creeps across the b.-iy. In order to hasten and simplify this_ work, preparations are being made to build the other end of the wall out from Point Resolution, meeting the wall from Campbell's Point in the middle of the bay. For this purpose a large wooden bin js being constructed at the top of the cliff the Parnell Baths, with a long chute dpwn which the rock may be tipped to the waiting trucks below. The greatest concentration of men a,nd materials on the whole job is at present being made at the site of the Orakei stuition. 4 The location, viewed topograph id'ally, *is a peculiar one, as the island station and platforms will occupy a huga cutting, 132 ft. wide, razed completely through the promontory, known as Orakei Neck, that shuts in the Orakei Basin from Hobson Bay, The procedure in making the catting is to tunnel through the isthmus at both ends, run shafts up to the surface as at Campbell's Point, and break down the cliff by hand labour, taking the spoil out of the drive by horse-drawn trucks. By using a douole J set of tracks it is possible to load one set of trucks with spoil shovelled down at the month of the tunnel, and another set of trucks at the base of the shf.ft,, several chains under (he hillside. Steam Shovel Versus Hand Labour. Fifty men are employed on the works at Orakei, and an interesting experiment is to be seen of a steam shovel working in competition with hand labour. While work is pushed on expeditiously in the two opposite drives, other men are breaking away the cliff on the northern fide until now a huge red and yellow scar breaks the wide expanse of green that looks out over Hobson Bay. One of the difficulties to 'be met, in this work will be the necessity of making & temporary detour for the road to the Orakei Bridge until steps can be tak.en to erect the over-bridge which is to carry the road over the cutting, which at this point will be 70ft. in width. The spoil from the station cutting, and is; will amount to 300.000 cubic vards, is being deposited in Hobson Bay and the' Ou.ikei Basin to form the railway embankments. The basin, of course, offers by far the smaller distance to be coverea and a stall has been made from- both i 3 nds. Thei embankment across Hobson Bay is the longest sea-filling on the entire job and is at present traversing water frfi in depth at; high spring tides. The eirthen embankment has been pushed out until it is now half-way to the Orakei sewer, which will be crossed by the ra.ilTr«»y line, while the stone sea-wall has traversed two'-thirds of the distance. An Interesting Device. On a big work like this, new methods and novel devices for attaining a maximum degree of efficiency are bound to have a place, and not the least interesting is the portable trestle which is to be seen at the sea end of the Hobson Bay embankment. This contraption is an original device of the of the deviation works. Mr. R. H. Packwood, and is a semi-floating wooden structure on to which the "muck" trucks are run and tipped. As it is almost floating it can be palled out by means o? a windlass and hawser attached to a sea_ anchor, pulling the railway track with it as the embankment moves further out to seeIt is thus moved 33ft. once every three days, the operation taking only 20 minutes Its employment is undoubtedly economical, as it saves the time, labour and expense of constructing pile-sup-ported trestles in advance of the earthworks. Following the Purewa Stream past the cemetery to the entrance to the Purewa tunnel, gangs of men are busily engaged preparing cuttings and embankments across the small "gullies that abound its this neighbourhood. Some of the smaller cuttings have been completed, while the largest is taking so long that a temporary set of tracks has been run round the spur of the hill to enable the spoil from the tunnel to be deposited further down the Purewa gully. Time is valuable and elaborate precautions, that the non-ehgin-earing mind would never dream of, are taken to ensure that no part of the work i:s impeded and that not a cubic yard of spoil i 3 wasted by be. ; ng dumped where it will never be of service. Progress at Purewa Tunnel, *" The Purewa tunnel is now about eight chains under the encampment at St. Heiiers Bay Road, "but as a large portion of the face of the tunnel is to oe removed, there remains about six chains of permanent tunnelling completed, although this is to be widened considerably before the 2ft thickness of concrete is put in for the tunnel walls. The widening of the tunnel is a complicated process, necessitating the piercing of a duplicate, -:hough r.iuch smaller tunnel, just above the bottom heading, and gradually enlarging it and timbering it heavily with wooden stays until the; two merge into one. At the present moment, too, a vertical shaft is being put through to the surface to a.ssist in breaking down the facu of the hill where the tunnel entrance is to be. •_ k at the southern entrance to the tunnel is slower, as a considerable bite has to be taken out of the hillside before the drive can be commenced, and heavy slips have hindered the work. It is expected that tunnelling will start in a i month. In'the" meanwhile the spoil from the cutting is being deposited in this immediate neighbourhood to level the ground for the Glen Innes station. The furthest south at vrhich works are in progress is tht Point England Road, where the line is to cross by an overbridge. _As the country hereabouts is comparatively Hat, it is necessary to lower the road to a depth of 12ft. This is already being carried out by means of gradcrt..