SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16788, 4 May 1926, Page 6

SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE

STEADY PROGRESS. Six hundred men digging, hammering, sawing; cranes, lalhes, drills, mangles whirring, always building, adding wood lo wood and steel lo steel. And up against tin; skyline the tremendous mass of the Harbour Bridge is steadily taking shape (says a Sydney paper). At Dawes Point the terminal abutment, the point at which Donnan, Long's contract ends and Ihe. Public Works Department takes over, has been completed. So have granite piers Nos. 1 and "2, while Nos. ;i and i .ire well muter way. Here, a mass of false work —wood (.resiling—has heel) erected lo carry the :ir>-lon capacity travelling electric crane, which is lo begin lifting into place I lie steel work of Hie approach spans now being fabricated in Ihe Milson's Point workshops.

The massive concrete retaining wall round Dickson's Road is finished, as are Ihe excavations for Ihe southern anchorage tunnel, a huge horseshoe formation going down 1,'15 feel, on Ihe slope. Caldcs passing through Ihis liinncl are lo sustain the tremendous weight of the arm of Ihe arch as il is being built out over ihe water. Down al Hie point where lliekson Road skirted tile water's edge two huge excavations il) feel deep imvo been made in the rock. Here is lo rest Ihe southern base of Ihe arch, 'and soon Ihe "skew-back" foundations

ins Ihcy arc called technically) are lo be. commenced. They have lo be particularly strong, on account of Ihe enormous weight thrust on Ihem. Over Ihe foundations is to be erected the granite abulmeiil, towering to a height, of 285 feel.

If is hard lo picture lhat, for Sydney's highest buildings boast only i."i() feet. Equally hard is il for ferry passengers to imagine Dial, in Ihe next few years. Ihe deck of the bridge Is I) pass i 7 2 feel, (i inches above Ihcir beads, and the lop of the arch is lo In- 150 feel above water level. Over al .Milson's I'oinl Hie big workshops an; a hive of industry. Last, week Hie second shipment of Broken Hill sleet arrived, and now Hie machines are busy fabricating I! e panels for lie' approach spans. 'fli,', workmen arc still excavating for Ihe main northern abutment, toil Ihe terminal abutment is complete, and Ihe granite work of Ihe approach piers is lo lie commenced shortly. To date 01,0(1(1 cubic yards of' rock anil 25,000 cubic yards of earth have been taken out in excavations.