BIG BUILDING

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 779, 27 September 1929, Page 6

BIG BUILDING

U.SA. EFFICIENCY METHODS AUSTRALIAN EXPERT IMPRESSED At the rate of six storeys in five days right to the tower, 56 storeys up from the ground. Such -was the rate at which the contractors for the new Chrysler Building in New York proceeded with the erection of the steel framework, according to Mr. F. W. Newson, director of the Concrete Construction Company of Sydney, who arrived back from TJ.S.A. on the last trip of the Aorangi, and has been spending a few days in New Zealand. Mr. Newson is accustomed to big construction jobs. His company .in Sydney has not long finished the 14storey building in Sydney for the Sun Newspapers, Ltd.; the new Government Savings Bank, a job which cost little short of £2,000,000, is another contract just completed by the Concrete Construction Company. Nevertheless, the Sydney builder was impressed with the speed and efficiency methods of the American. ‘‘ln Chicago they were working on what was proposed to be the largest building under a single roof in the world. There was not a barrow to be seen on the whole job. Plant used was valued in the vicinity of half a million dollars. They had belt conveyors which carried the cement 400 to 500 feet up in the air. To save time, they had eight lines of tram rails direct from the siding, running right under the building, where the trucks were emptied into the elevators. The cement arrived in bulk, and was unloaded by vacuum. More than 1,200 cubic yards of concrete were poured into the building in one day. In three days the contractors used more concrete than that required for any building in Auckland. The number of workmen engaged on the New Yorker Hotel were sufficient to populate, with their families, an average-sized New Zealand provincial town. The building was planned to contain 2,500 bedrooms, each with a bathroom. More than 7,000 men were engaged on the job; 400 plasterers worked five days a week for 15 dollars a day, and 200 bricklayers were employed at the same rate of pay. The building had to be completed within 12 months, so there was need for the hurry. Doors 180 feet high, and weighing in all approximately 800 tons, were included among - the construction masterpieces seen by Mr. Newson. The doors were attached to the new hangar. 1,200 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 200 feet high, at present being constructed to house two new dirigibles in Akron, TJ.S.A.