THE NEW WHARF

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 150, 22 April 1940, Page 5

THE NEW WHARF

I WORK PROGRESSING THE ART OF PILE-DRIVING j W T ork is progressing rapidly on the construction of the new wharf. While men arc engaged in the making of concrete piles on the Northern Steamship Company's section opposite the wharf sheds, others are employed in lifting out the old piles and driving the new ones. The old piles display a remark- 1 able state of preservation, those portions which have been under water showing no signs of their long immersion. The totara, in most cases, is as good now as when driven years ago. So tightly were they embedded that explosives had to be used to loosen them. Driving the long and heavy concrete piles which arc to form the foundation of the new wharf is a bigger task than supposed. A sheerlegs has been erected, both for extracting the old and driving the new, and from this the pile is iowered into position. A few old cement bags are wrapped around the head of the pile and on top of these is placed a three-inch thickness of timber. After the pile has been lowered until the point is resting solidly and taking the weight, a 'monkey' is hauled up the sheerlegs and allowed to drop on to the pile head. The pile generally responds to the treatment, because the hnonkey' is a block of steel, about 4 feet high, and Aveighs 3% tons. A trip is then fixed to the head of the 'monkey' and the winch starts up, the wire rope taking the strain and pulling the 3% tons up from the pile. When about 2% feet above the pile head, the trip releases the 'monkey' and the blow sinks the mass of concrete a few more inches. A BEACON representative jumped when the solid steel fell v the first time and he left the scene with the firm conviction that monkeys and things are certainly not for just anybody to play with.