FILLING UP A BAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20372, 28 September 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

FILLING UP A BAY.

SEAPORT'S NEW SCHEME. SQUARE MILE OF LAND. GREAT SOUTHAMPTON WORK. At {Southampton, tho Southern Railway Company is busy filling up a great bay in tho Southampton Water, two miles long and half a mile wide. Sinco Southampton is. situated at tho mouth of tho River Te3t, which brings down n groat deal of mud, tho fulfilment of tho now schemo will bring about a doublo advantage to tho town. It will not only provide a square mile of land adjoining tho existing docks, but also will mako tho outlet for tho waters of tho Test considerably narrower, thus increasing the speed of tho water and preventing tho deposit of so much mud.

Tho swifter tho river tho more solid matter it is able to hold in suspension, and tho less mud it deposits. If tho average dopth of tho material to fill up tho bay should bo about £sft., the total volume of material required will be about 15 million cubic yards.

A great quantity of this is being obtained by tho fleet of dredgers engaged in deepening tho main channel. Two types of dredger are in use, tho ordinary bucket type and tho suction dredger. In a suction drodgor an enormous metal

propeller drives the liquid mud on the river-bed up a large pipe to the surface, where the water is drained off and the mud deposited in a barge. Altogether the dredgers raise 20,000 tons of earth a day from the bed of tho Kiver Test. Another 1000 tons a day are excavated from the works on land, while 700 tons of chalk are brought daily from (lie Hampshire Downs at Micheldever. Tho company is well ahead with the work at present, and hope to complete the filling-iri in about two years. Not only will docks have to be built along the new sea front, but there will also bo a new suburb added to tho town.

This necessitates the laying of sewers, water-mains, gaspipes, drains, and so on, and for tho purposo another firm has a contract for tho manufacture of over two miles of rock cement pipes of seven feet inside diameter.

These enormous pipes are bring made in short sections closo at hand, so that it will bo comparatively easy to place them in position and cement them together as soon ns they are required. In tho manufacture of huge monoliths and other shore-sido works 1000 tons of concreto, involving tho use of 120 tons of Portland cement, aro handled each day. Altogether about 1000 men are employed on the works. Southampton itself stands to benefit considerably from this reclamation of land. As it is, possessing the largest floating dock in tho world, and being tho nearest and most convenient port to London for Atlantic passengers, it harbours tho world's largest linersj and if tho -three new 1000 ft. liners, which tho Cunard ami White Star companies aro talking of should materialise this town may ono day find itself holding Iho position of tho world's largest seaport.