GIGANTIC WORK

Hokitika Guardian, 15 December 1931, Page 6

GIGANTIC WORK

THE SYDNEY BRIDGE. OPENING CELEBRATIONS. Elaborate celebrations will attend the open ceremony, on March 19, of the colossal bridge spanning Sydney Harbour, the largest one-span arch bridge in the world., This enormous structure, taking over eight years to build, will have cost nearly £10,000,000, including the massive approaches, at the time of completion. There are 50,300 toils of steelwork, 37,000 tons of which make up the huge span alone. Metropolitan Sydney' is composed o-f the city and fifty-one municipalities, and,... shires. It has an area of almost 700 square miles, of which about 140 square miles are parks and reserves. The populaition is 1,300,000. h The main bridge consists of a twohinged arch of 1050 feet ..span, with five approach spans on either side, the total length of steel structure being 3770 feet. The highest point of the steel work at the centre of the top chord is 414, feet and ai'lows clearance for shipping of 171 feet. The bridge provides for four tracks of electric railway, a main roadway fifty-seven feet wide between kerbs and two footways each ten feet wide. There is capacity, for eighty trains, and 6000 vehicles an hour in each direction, whilst 40,000 people can walk across in one hour. Up to now Sydney, north with south, has been served by ferry steamers. The chief engineer of the bridge ..{Dr J.. J, C, makes this computation : If the 42,000,000 people' who, it -is estimated, will cross the bridge during the first year it is opened, saved only one minute' per journey, as against crossing hv' water, this would collectively represent sixty years of time; but as each passenger will save at least twelve minutes per journey, the equivalent will, be 1000 years.

The live loading for which the Image is designed (12,0001bs per lineal foot) provides for congested loading of all traffic avenues—railways, roadways and footways. The effect of a hurricane at 100 miles an hour and a variation of 120 degrees in temperature are also provided for. The granitefaced towers and pylons are the architectural features of the bridge. The tops of the pylons are- 285 feet above mean sea. level. Granite was obtained from Atomy a, 170 miles- away, the black mica giving the stone a pleasant appearance, sparkling in the sun and so enhancing the beauty of the white quartz. Blocks of granite up to 2000 tons- have been quarried. To those who have observed the progress of this mammoth work the evolution has been, fascinating. And now at nightfall, awaiting its opening, sombre and uncanny'• in its majestic silence against the roof of the- world, stands this silhouettted shape—black in outline all save the diadem-like cluster of electric lights in, the dead centre, denoting to shipping the highest point above the fairway. With the opening, the scene will be changed a- night to one of spectacular brilliance There will be light from thousands of electric globes and from the train and ioithei- vehicle Juminants. Ami ceaselessly underneath, vessels, will come and go from and to the marts across the Seven Seas. Elaborate arrangements are in progress for a vast influx of people for the celebrations. The' whole week, coordinating as it will with the great Agricultural show of the State,'- the big annual racing fixture, and countless specially organised attractions, will be full of kaleidoscopic interest to visitors. The bridge-opening itself, with the pageantry proposed on land and water, will represent a day of days in Australia, a never-to-be-forgotten event in New South Wales, and an occasion which will live for all time in the remembrance of those who will he there to see it.