DRAINAGE EXTENSION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 956, 25 October 1910, Page 6

DRAINAGE EXTENSION.

' A' DIFFICULT jUNDEETAKING. Some rather serious'working .difficulties are being encountered 'and'overcome in the extension of- the-city, drainage system: at South'Kilbirnie. On the,Evans<Bay Eoad, ne.ar-Te'Whiti Street, about half a' mile' distant from the. Mirnmar boundary, a sewage tank is being excavated which will receive a portion.of the' drainage from the South' Kilbirnie fiat. The tank' is, one ■of a; series-from which sewage will■• be pumped, by compressed air power, generated at'the corporation establishment on Clyde' .Quay, to" the drainage- ontfall at the Heads. The difficulties encountered in the prosecution of .the work, at Te Whiti Street, .arise from the fact' that, the,' excavation is being made in very loose and:unstable material. From a-point near the surface, loose sand and water are met all the wav down.' The .timbers used in supporting' tho walls of the tank,,< and those; of the trench by which the sewer will approach'it, are constantly,shifting, and require often to be secured afresh.: In order that the work may proceed, pumps, have to be kent going night, and day to clear the excavations,-as far as possible, of water. The pines laid in the trench approaching the tank are of necessity bedded on concrete, owing to the insecure nature of the underlving' formation. It is the opinion of the foreman suponntending the work thatno'more difficult task than this hasbeel encountered, in the prosecution of the city drainage scheme.' There are at present twenty-five men engaged, in the work, apart from those who-carry on pumping operations during the night. Two other tanks of a similar nature are to be constructed, one of them in tho region of the Patent Slip.