Parliament Buildings Contract

Progress, Volume XI, Issue 2, 1 October 1915, Page 445

Parliament Buildings Contract

Progress of the Work Government Supplies of Marble —Up-to-date Marble Cutting Machinery

After many disappointing delays, the contractors for the Parliament Building, Messrs Hansford and Mills will soon be able to go ahead with their big contract at a good pace. The photographs published in this issue show that a substantial part of the

The facade of the new building with its imposing series of columns, is to be in Sandy Bay marble. To get blocks of sufficient size, free from flaws, a new quarry has had to be opened five and a half miles from Sandy Bay wharf, at an elevation of 1,200 feet.

works has been done, the building—except for the' front elevation and some other parts of the outer walls—being up to the final story. The best indication of the extent of the work is to be gained by viewing it from the central courtyard, where the brickwork rises over fifty feet above ground level. The masonry visible in the panoramic photograph is the granite base fourteen feet high, ending at the main floor, which will be reached by broad granite steps placed immediately behind the Seddon Statue, which is exactly in the centre of the pile as it will stand when the second part of the scheme is completed, embodying the Parliament Library, Committee Booms, and Bellamy's.

An incline railway, to be worked by gravity, is being built to the quarry. This work alone is of real interest and magnitude, and will result in placing a very valuable building material on the market. Half a mile of the line is on the steep grade of 1 in 12, and the remainder, as can be realized by the fact that it rises 1,200 feet in the total distance, is also on a heavy grade. About two and a half miles of rails have to be laid before marble can be got out, and it is hoped to be able to ship the first consignments in December. Blocks of good marble six feet in thickness and weighing forty tons have been got out, and there are at least seventy stones weighing about fourteen

tons each lying on the ground. : The largest stones to be worked into the new building will weigh between two and three tons. Thus it is necessary to have a good plant for handling the marble, and Messrs Hansford and Mills are importing machinery which is “the last word” in marble-cutting methods. Circular saws, having diamond points on the circumference, will be installed in the firm’s masonry yard at Wellington. These English-designed machines are credited by their makers with a cutting capacity of two hundred super feet per hour. If they run at half that capacity it will be a good advance on methods previously in use in New Zealand. Four electric cranes dominate the job, and enable the heaviest material to be quickly and easily placed where it is wanted. When the representative of “Progress” visited the job recently the main floors of concrete with expanded metal reinforcement were being laid. All the mixing was done by one electrically driven mixer, an electric crane lifting the concrete to the working place. The walls of the lounge lobby, to be one of the most imposing rooms in the building, have reached roof level. A fine promenade roof will be provided over it. The walls of the House of Representatives, the concrete floors of the galleries, and also the steelwork, are complete. In the basement, which is beneath the front ground level, is a splendid series of fire-proof rooms for storage of documents. These will ensure ample safe custody for State papers for many generations to come. It is quite evident that the building part of the contract is well under weigh, and that the methods adopted in running the big job are up-to-date. Consequently when the marble which faces the principal walls above the basement comes to hand, a few months’ work will make a great difference.