PIPE-LINE RESTORATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21794, 8 May 1934, Page 10

PIPE-LINE RESTORATION

MAJOR RELIEF WORK WAITAKERE UNDERTAKING "Work lias now been started on the reconditioning of the Waitnkere pipeline, the largest of the undertakings provided for under the City Council's unemployment loan of £116,000 which Was sanctioned by the ratepayers on August 30 last. The amount provided for the reconditioning of this pipe-line, which is the oldest of the mains carrying water from the Waitakero ranges to the city reservoirs, is £65,000. The pipes have suffered from corrosion due to the perishing of the bitumen coating during the many years of exposure to the weather, and it is proposed to treat them, taking up a section at a time. A start has been made at Glen Eden, where 12 men are engaged m lifting about half a mile of the old pipes and replacing them with new ones. All the pipes taken out which are fit to be used again will be cleaned and recoated and used in the next section. This process will go on until the whole line is again in first-clas3 order.

It is expected that when the work is fully organised there will be fully 50 men engaged. They will bo men selected from the Unemployment Board's register, and they are to receive standard rates of pay. The Unemployment Board refunds to the council the equivalent to the relief pay, and the council makes up the difference to standard rates from the loan money.