RECLAMATION WORKS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1956, 13 January 1914, Page 8

RECLAMATION WORKS.

PRESENT AND FUTURE. - A TOUR ROUND ABOUT THE WATERFRONT, [Bv "Landsman ''] A walk along tho foreshore' iii the vicinity of Waterloo Quay, and between';! Taraijalri Street -and Clyde "\Qiiav ■ wharves should convince the most casuals observer that the Harbour Boards reclamation schemes are being carried: out expeditiously. ■ : A great amount of reclamation .'work' has been carried, out during the past i twelve months. During the- time specij fied the Harbour Board's dredge has lifted from the harbour and pumped, ashore at To Aro and Thorndon nofewer than 410,000 tons of spoil. This constitutes a record, and some idea?of ! the work which is being carried out. can ] | bo gathered from tho figures supplied. Up to (lie present the dredgo has beon working at Thorndon and To Aro reclamations alternately. This method lias been adopted so as to enable the silt to settle. If, however, the dredge was confined to pumping "land" into either To Aro or Thorndon, all the time, the present work at either place would be completed in twelve months, ■ • Oil account of tho way in which the work lias to be carried out it is estimated that tho whole schomo will bo completed in about two years' time. Practically all tho' reclaimed kntl in the areas has been dredged from x Falcon: Shoal or in that vicinity. The dredgo has a hard task to perform, and when' it is understood that she has to travel five miles down the harbour, load up, and return, it will be. seen that to do tho amount of work she has been credited with last year is no mean task. To Aro's New Land. When the site where Wellington's dcck would have boon is filled in there] will be 17 acres of land right in tho heart of the city ready for occupation. .When it has been drained and roadeel it-is estimated that tho new land at lo Aro will bo worth £127,000. To the j casual observer thero does not appear to bo much more work to bo accom- i plished before the dock site will be filled in. Thero is practically little or no water .visible now. Yesterday tho dredgo was pumping tons of spoil aslwre at a great rate, and carts were engaged in tipping earth into the basin from the land side. Tho side nearest the wator is quite firm, and it extends back for some considerable distance. Tho side nearest tho To Aro Railway Station, however, is whero tho bulk of the work remains to be dono. Reclamation at Thorndon. When the present work at Thorndon is finished there'will be 9£ acres of ex- ' ccllent building land,' and after the drains, roads, etc.,,are C9mpleted it will bo worth £95,000. As a matter of fact the actual reclamation work in connection with tho Thorndon end of tho harbour is practically completed, mid already buildings have been erected and railways constructed thero. ■ Up to the present the work of reclamation has not affected the Thorndon Baths, but it is thought that in years to come these baths will have to be removed. Tho reason is that there will be no water at that particular place. It will be all land. Prospects for the Future. The Harbour Board has gone as far a-9 it is necessary. for the present in connection with reclaiming limd at Thorndon end. With the work that has, already .been accomplished threo wharves—l'ipitea, Lambton, and Thorndon —can now be constructed, and ample land -is available for sheds, etc., in 'connection therewith. But that is not all. A glance nt tho plan cf the harbour will show that tho business. part, of the port must move out in tho direction of Kaiwarra. And the wore flat land that is available in.the City the hotter it is for business purposes. It will not be long before the whole of I the Thorndon reclaimed, land is built on, and then when tho threo wharves, which havo been mentioned, have been constructed, the question will certainly arise, "Where to, now?" The answer is Kaiwarra. In a ■ few years' time it is said that tho whole of the waterfront between tho King's Wharf and Kaiwarra will bo reclaimed and built on. Then again, as tho port- grows— as it assuredly must—tho question of new wharves will ariso. And whero jean they-be built? The eastern sido I of the harbour cannot accommodate any | more wharves, therefore, those stroc-j't-uros must be built Kaiwarrawards. j There is deop water out there, and ! plenty of it. It is said that when j the wharves aro constructed out thero the best berthage accommodation in tho harbour will be available.

There is no getting away from the fact that the work of reclamation must go on in Wellington. It should not be allowed to ccaso till the whole of that portion of the harbour between Waterloo Quay and Kaiwarra lias been reclaimed.