MACRAE BATHS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17453, 30 December 1930, Page 11

MACRAE BATHS

CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS two-thirds excavated About, two-thirds of the excavation involved in the plans for the Macrae baths has been completed, and in a few days the concreting of the floor of the pool will be commenced. The work is attracting a good deal of attention from passers-by, but its location does not bring it prominently before, the public, and the degree of progress is unknown to many residents who have, by financial support, shown then; sympathy with the object. , • It is now some three weeks since the section was cleared, and those who have followed the various stages of the work have been surprised at the amount of excavation rendered necessary by the design of the pool, which calls for its* construction almost entirely below the high-water level in the adjacent Waimata River. The bath is to be supplied with Water from tile river, and the designer of the pool, Mr. G. E. Dafton, has proceeded on the assumption that it will prove cheaper in the long run to have the supply controlled by the rise and fall of the tides, even though it means a large amount of additional excavation in the first place, than to have the water pumped out of the riVer. According to the levels, the bath should almost completely fill itself withotit any pumping at high-tide periods, and of course there is provision for preventing the escape of water thus admitted Us the tide falls. One of the first portions of the work taken in hand was the sinking of the pipes which will feed the bath from the river, and while the concreting of the bath goes forward during the next month, the construction of the receiving chamber and the installation of the valve apparatus will he proceeded with simultaneously.

CUBICLE ACCOMMODATION From the level of lower Ormond road the earth of the bath site was originally excavated to a depth of 7ft. and a retaining wall of concrete constructed. This wall , is to serve as the rear wall of the cubicles, the side walls of which will give additional support for tho retention qf the soil at ordinary ground level. From the iloor level of tho cubicles, the excavation proceeded to a further depth of sft. at the shallow end of the pool, and since has been extended at mi increasing depth to the maximum of 7ft, from which it is to rise about Ift. The greatest depth will not be at one end of the pool, but about 25ft. from what is nominally the “deep end.” The overall dimensions of the hath will be 100 ft. by 33ft., the length being standard for'Competition worlf. The floor of the pool will be 7in. in thickness, supported on concrete beaipk 18in. in depth; the walls will be of similar thickness, and the pool will represent simply a strongly : reinforced concrete bowl set in the ground. The rat o'at which the work has gone forward to date suggests that the bath should be ready for use well .before the close of the swimming season, say by the end of February.