WILL TRAM STAFF WIN THE FIGHT?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18385, 10 February 1928, Page 9

WILL TRAM STAFF WIN THE FIGHT?

PUBLIC INTERESTED IN CONTEST WITH PRIVATE TENDERS.

With pick and shovel, drill and boilers. tramwaymen are waging a war in Oxford Terrace. The tram track from the Clarendon Hotel to the Hospital corner is being re-laid by the board’s staff, after it was found that the lowest private tender for the work was some £4OOO in excess of the estimate of the board’s engineer (Mr Wright). The public, and the men themselves, are keen to see whether the board will win, in its decision to act on its engineer’s estimate. The work has been going on for about a fortnight, and will have to finish in about seven weeks’ time, if the specified period is adhered to. Tramway officials have been approached by private citizens with congratulations upon the despatch w’ith which the work is being carried out, the coordination of the gangs, and the mobilisation of supplies. The public, who dearly love a fight, are keenly interested in the matter.

About seventy men are on the job, and some thirty of these are men who would otherwise be out of employment. They have been taken from the ranks of the workless. There has been some night work, mainly in rail-bending for the winding track, but most of the labour is confined to day work. The head of the works is now past the Montreal Street bridge, and has the hospital in sight. Till Lichfield Street, along which the tram service was deflected, was reached, there was not much difficulty in keeping the service going, but the second stretch to the hospital requires extra planning in the work. A couple of chains of track has been left near Lichfield Street for trams to cross over on to the Terrace, after which a single track will be made alongside the old one. When this new track encounters the present double track past the bridge, temporary crosses-over will be made as the work proceeds, to enable the service to switch over to the double track at any point desired. When the new track has been laid from Lichfield Street, trams will be switched over on to it while the present line is being re-laid.