The New Waterworks.

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 12644, 31 August 1904, Page 8

The New Waterworks.

A VISIT OF INSPECTION

As several of the Borough Councillors intended paying a visit of inspection to the new waterworks on Monday, at the kind invitation of the Borough Engineer, Mr Gibbon, a representative of this paper accompanied -the party, which was made up of Councillors Brooking, Wood, and ■ Browne, Mr Gibbon (Borough .Engineer), Mr Newton (Stratford Electric Lighting Company's Engineer), and Messrs Perm (Herald) and Staples (News) . Mr Gibbon and the pressmen i preceded the rest of the party, and the j reservoir works at the Cross roads . were first visited. Not a great deal ! has yet been done here, but a gang of men are engaged in excavating with horse scoops, and the site of the filter bed has been prepared for the concrete work. The filters, valves, ate, are lying about the paddock, and opportunity was taken to inspect the , faulty castings of whioh complaint has been made. It was noticed, too, that many of the castings are somewhat rough and, moreover, are rusting from exposure to the weather. These defects, however, will have to be remedied by the contractors. Passing on the Mangorei dairy factory was soon reached and here the buggy was left. At the outlet of the tunnel gumboots and oilskins are donned arid we descend a shaft into the tunnel, and face an underground walk of about. 64 chains to a shaft on the bank of the Mangamahoe. Mr Gibbon intends that the press shall see all there is to be seen, so we follow his lead. For «ome chains the tunnel is Oined with concrete and locomotion is easy, though there is scarcely enough headroom for perfect comfort, and the floor is a trifle wet. This portion is finished .except for a cement facing on the concrete, and a capital job has been made of it. After travelling a short distance a little dam across the tunnel is met with. This, Mr Gibbon explains, is intended to hold back the water behind it, so that Sunday visitors to the works will not be disposed to travel through the tunnel. From 'hi.- onwards the water is nearly up to our knees, and presently we come to a part not concreted, but roughly timbered, as an occasional bump of tho head reminds us. Where tho tunnel l^asses undpr a swamp a lot of water drips from the roof, and in one place, which has been concreted, holes have had to be left in the wall for the water to pour through. As much •as 1 8 inches of concrete has in some places to be used. When the lining is finished the holes will be plugged up. Towards the upper end of the tunnel 'ome very hard country to bore through was found, huge boulders having to be blasted away, and sometimes not more than two feet was bored in a day. A great deal more concrete lining than was expected will have t o be done, for a lot of rotten country is traversed, which will not stand when the air gets in. So far as thp lining is done, however, it seems to make a capital job. It takes v«? ' hree-quarters of an hour to traverse fit chains, and {hen we comp, to a ha f t at the outlet on the bank of thp stream. The tunnel will !e continued under the bed of this stream and a few chains further tho '>ank of the Waiwakaiho at the in*ake is reached. Hprp the work is well advanced, and it "will not takp longr ■to complete it so as to lot the waters of tho Waiwakaiho into thp tunnpj l .

Shortly after we had emcrg-pd from, he tunnel the rest of the party arri•~fd, having come by the road. Councillor Browne and Mr Newton accom»anv Mr Gibbon through tlip tunno! on the return journey, thp r^st of v** talong the road for it. On reaching the outlpt of the tunnel the party fotflowrd thp track of the electric light pipe Th ;^ will be a 21 -inch pipp which carrier the water over a steep bank with a fall of about 125 feet to the power tousp which will be built near whore Mr TT. King now has his piggoriVs. From hprp to the rivpr again ihoro i«, n fall of about ten or fiftppn feet. From the tunnel outlet thpro will al^o he n scour pipe and the 15-inch m pin fn iVip rpsprvoir. The lafter is n.lrr>ndv laid expppt two or three "hort lengths, whprp pipe bridgps havp to bp built, pk across the Maneorpi river, nnd thp actual connections with thp tunmol and the reservoir. From thp rpsprvoir site thp pipns arp laid down thp Pukpfotara road to the present watprworks crate where they will ronnpet with the pyisting system. They are also laid a-lon-r thi Junction Road to Mr RlIprm's housp. where they pa^ through h : s property and on to Mr Snxton's. F<>p thpre is a lono- gap on recount of a I'ttle difficulty in arranging tnrrrn with Mr Saxton. That, howpvt. is now ovprcomp. and thp pipps will shortly be laid to tho Avpnup Rood, whprp they arp now behnc laid fr O>"O >" the borough boundary to Mr Cliff '<■• nropprtv. So advanced i<* the worl now that it would be possible, in a very short timp. to turn thp, wa ♦ '•? into the pipes, n nd probabV this wll IP done without -waiting tor the com oM ion of the ro«ervoir. The contractor for the tunnel. Mr ftTV- William*, has had a lot of difficulty to contend with, but on the whole h" hns carried out his contract well. In boring thp tunnel a start was made, from both ends, and when the, two bore-« met there was only a very c-lio-ht variation. Tn one ortwoplacns. however, tV workmen had tomporarilv dpparted from the true linp. and =omp labour was thus lost. Thp fall in the tunnel is only 18 inches m the f>i phains. Mr Gibbon h A d to face tho difficult f-^1 of taking up the work Romp time, after it was started, and whpn things vp,p rather at sixes and sovfirw. An the work nears completion, howovor, H is apparent that he successfully n-ekpd un The threads, and when cvprvfbm^ is finished thp ww waterworks .will be a credit to him. To Wr_ Collor. clerk of works, much credit is also dup , , , , Wer somp linrht refreshment . a -tart V as made for home, a short stay bpin- p-rain mado at thp roßPrvoir site.