TRAMWAY TRACKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22515, 4 September 1936, Page 12

TRAMWAY TRACKS

QUEEN STREET WORK LAYING NEW FOUNDATIONS EXTENSIVE RECONSTRUCTION One of the largest reconstruction works undertaken by the Auckland Transport Board is to be started next month, when a beginning is to be made with new foundations for the tramway system in Queen Street from Victoria Street to Customs Street. All the work will be done at night, in order to reduce inconvenience to the minimum. No alteration in the board's timetable will be necessary.

At present the tram rails in the lower part of Queen Street are laid on wooden stringers supported by wooden rails, tho work having been done by the Auckland Tramway Company in 1912. All these foundations are to Le replaced by steel ones, made from old tram rails, which have been found to make excellent piles and stringers. The work "has been made necessary because the deterioration of the wooden stringers has resulted in a subsidence. The deterioration has been caused by the nature of the ground, for this portion of Queen Street once carried part of the city's natural drainage and was tidal to some distance above Shortland Street.

A pile-hammer will, have to be used for the reconstruction and because of tho noise involved and the effect the work would have on traffic, it has been decided to confine operations from tho time the last trams have been despatched to the suburbs until the first cars begin to run in the morning. By this means it is hoped to make as little disturbance as possible. The work will take several weeks to complete.