A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXVIII, 20 August 1920, Page 4

A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT.

UNIQUE METHOD OP PILLDRIVING. A most successful experiment, am one quite unique as far as New Zea land is concerned, was tarried out, b; the Napier Harbour Beard official- oi the West Quay recently fstates tie •'Telegraph"). It concerned the driv ing of ferroconcrete piles. The oh met'aed was expensive, slow, and rnos damaging to the piles, which '..ere in fluently fractured, permitting the sal i water to come in contact with the stet reinforcement, thus causing a corrosiv action to set up. The new ntetho adopted was most successful, and by i large concrete piles were simp! "sunk" into the earth in about hal an boar and without the slightest pre sure being exerted on the pile. Tli pile was constructed with a pipe rui ning through the centre and when tl: pile was in position a -tream of watt from the city supply wa.s directed fro: the fire main to the pipe in the' pil The water, rushing out at the has which was sharpened, loosened an then removed the silt, tho pile sinkiu deepen as the water cleared the wa; As soon as the pile was in deep enoug the water was turned off. and it w; found that the concrete pillar wi firmly embedded in the sand. It is e pected that this system will save mac thousands of pound- in the propose harbour improvements, a- less- laboi is required, no engine, no coal, ar tbe-re is no risk, of damaging the CiX'e: sive piles.