ENDLESS TASK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19023, 25 May 1936, Page 12

ENDLESS TASK

PAINTING SYDNEY BRIDGE 40 MEN AT WORK « • SYDNEY, May 9. / The painting of Sydney Harbour Bridge is a never-ending taste. It takes # 40 men six years to paitit the whole structure, when the ■process, must, be begun all over again. Mr. F. 11. Litchfield, of the Mam 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 patch-painting. The time 1 then arrived when it was necessary to Consider the question of the general, re-painting 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, iron-workers 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, fine-third of the time, hr 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 inethod"; would be approximately the 'same * after the fju'st 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, amon-r other things, considerable, for additional stylgteS- : Tho.' : quantities of paint used at the time the bridge, was , constructed were as follows: Shop coat, 18.600 gallons (including contact surfaces) ; .intwpemate coat, 9280-gallons; finishing coat. 8620 gallons. * s The total capital cost of the bridge to dune 30. 1935, was- £10,083,382, as under: Payments to const ructibn cqfitractors, Dorman, Long and Company, y Limited, £4,810,516; expenditure by Public Works Department on bridge ancl approaches,. £2,329,740; acquisition °* land, £1,352,293; Lavender Bay railway station afid minor works, £95,096; interest. and exchange on loan expenditure during . construction, £1,495,637.