BOROUGH LOAN CONTRACTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81849, 25 September 1906, Page 2

BOROUGH LOAN CONTRACTS

WERE THEY BOTCHED?

Reporting on the completion of the pipe-laying at the waterworks tunnel side-drive, a work undertaken in order to cope with the enormous leakage of water from the tunnel, Inspector Kendall informed the New Plymouth Borough Council on Monday that on reaching the main tunnel he had made a close and careful examination, and "found that all timber had been left in, and from all appearances the leakage was going on over the whole length of the tunnel, j as very much water was in evidence on the far side of the tunnel from the side-drive." On the side-drive he found that the concrete wa'l to close up the drive had been placed between and about the timber only so far as across the width, in the clear, of the side-drive and for a thickness of not more than nine inches. He diet not anticipate any trouble near the pipe-head as the result of this work, but if this occurred he could remedy it.

Cr. Bellringer said there was a suspicion that the loan proposals had not been carried out as they should have been, and he suggested that an outside engineer should be asked to report as to whether the contracts had been completed according to specifications. The Council had paid for the best talenc, and its engineers had given certificates on which the work had been paid for. Had the Council been misled, or deceived, and if so, could the Council take action against the people who had misled it? The late engineer had stated that there was 18 inches of~3aq£rete where Mr Kendall found only nine. The Mayor considered nine inches , was a liberal estimate. He denied Mr Gibbon's recent assertion that he had been prevented by the Mayor from finishing the plastering of the tunnel.

In answer to questions, Mr Kendall 1 said the side-drive should have been dosed with concrete 18 inches thick, I'iid extending a distance of three times the width of the drive itself. The timber (mentioned in the report) should have been removed. Cr Bellringer : Then the engineer's opinion is.that the work is a botch? Mr Kendall declined to subscribe to such a dictum, but remarked that the work was not done in accordance with the specification. He appreciated the difficuulty of making such a tunnel watertight, but at the same time considered the leakage excessive. If Mr Mestayer were not getting on in years, he would like him to see this job, and thus get some information as to how the work had been carried out. It was pointed out that even if Cr. Bellringer's charges were proved to the hilt the Council had no redress, and the matter dropped.