HUGE TASK

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 178, 21 March 1932, Page 6

HUGE TASK

PRESERV A TT ON OF STRUCTURE BY REGULAR PAINTING COSTLY UNDERTAKIN G The Harbour Bridge has cost the ueoMe of New South Wales upwards of £1 0.000,000.- How long is it likely to last? Mr. Laurence Ennis, of Dorman Long and Company, who built it, says "the kfe of the bridge wiil be measuied by the attention it receives." What is meant by "attention" — and if this "attention" is not given, will the bridge fall down, say noxt we.ek. or next month, or perhaps in 1935? No! By "attention" experts explained, 's meant principally painting, to urotect the steelworlc from the weather. To some extent the bridge is an experiment. There has been notlrng "ke it in the world to date. Fut "u-rperiment" is not meant to convey that there is anv doubt as to Ihe br'dge's efficiency. The experts vrho built it say that its life is indefmite — only it must be painted regularly. To paint it costs — how much do you think? Every ehilling of £25,000, possibly a little more. P'ainted every two years, it would only run into £1.250,000 over a uev-'od of ten decades. The th-ee coats of paint it has received already have run away with 650 tons. There is little other cost of upkeeu. Stresses on the members mostly bala:ice each other — quite different from say a flywherl which is running in one divection all the time — so the 'umalion of "fatigue" is remote. The main bearings were treaied with grauh'te when they were put down. and need no future lubricating attention of any sort. The cost of oil for the bridge is mfinitesimal. The structure itself lois. not need any oil, but the mefimnical signals do; but their reguiroments would amount to only pin money.