GREAT PAINTING TASK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22434, 2 June 1936, Page 5

GREAT PAINTING TASK

SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE NEVER-ENDING OCCUPATION [from ouk own correspondent] SYDNEY. May 27 The painting of Sydney Harbour Bridge is a never-ending task. It takes 40 men six years to paint the whole structure, when the process must be begun all over again. Mr. F. R. Litchfield, of the Main Roads Department, referring to the matter in the latest issue of the department's official publication, states that up to August, 1935, the bridge was maintained by patchpainting. The time then arrived when it was necessary to consider the question of

the general repainting of the whole structure, commencing with the approach spans. Two alternative methods were considered: —A continuous painting programme could be adopted, which would involve the employment of approximately 40 men, including painters, ironworkers and riggers, completely to repaint the whole structure in approximately six years, at the end of which time the six-yearly cycle would be continued; or a correspondingly greater number of men could be employed to complete the repainting in, say, one-third oi' the time, or approximately two years, when the number of men would be reduced to the requirements of patch-painting for the remaining four years of the cycle. It was considered that the cost of either method would be approximately the same after the first cycle of six years had been completed. The former method was decided on, the decision being governed mainly by the fact that the other method would involve, among other things, considerable cost for additional staging. The quantities of paint used at the tunc the bridge was constructed were as follows Shop coat, 18,600 gallons (including contact surfaces); intermediate coat, 9280 gallons; finishing coat, 8620 gallons. I lie total capital cost of the bridge to June 30, 1935, was £10,083,282, as follows: Payments to construction contractors, Dorman, Long and Companv, Limited, £4.810,516; expenditure bv I üblic Works Department on bridge and- approaches, £2.329,740; acquisition of land,' £1,352,293; Lavender Bay railway station and minor works, £.95,096; interest and exchange on loan expenditure during construction, £1,495,637.