Thames Harbor Board.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4705, 5 February 1884, Page 2

Thames Harbor Board.

HABBOB MASTEB'S BEPOBT,

The following yeporfc of the Harbor Master was presented at the Board :— "To the Chairman, &a. — Gentlemen, — Work at the Goods' Wharf since last monthly meeting has been entirely confined to keeping the planking in repair and carrying on the road contract. The contract is progressing fairly well, and if carried on at the same rate as at present will be completed in the specified time. With regard to that portion of the wharf below the road and silt wall, it will shortly require a considerable amount of strengthening, and the most economical mode of doing so will be to utilise the timber taken up as the road progresses, for intermediate stringers and braces where required. My reason for advocat ing intermediate atriDgers being laid i 3 that the present ones are too far apart, and also that those at present down are nail sick, consequently the planking cannot be kept firmly in position, and through the stringers being so far apart the planking has a tendency to spring as well. There will be a considerable amount of timber available, and the labor, with the assistance probably of an extra , man, can be done with our present staff. The goods shed on the wharf was leaking badly on the roof, and the sides in places required repairing, which I have had done. At the powder magazine wharf the steps have decayed and disappeared, and 1 have a new set in course of con struction, as they are absolutely required, there being no other means of landing powder during bad tides, as vessels cannot then get alongside; consequently the powder has to be brought ashore in boats and carried up the steps, and there is a large quantity expected •daily.; Re Sbortland Wharf: The new portion is nearly completed, but the fender piles are driven entirely different from the rest of the wharf; they are driven alongside the wharf piles instead of with having a slope outwards from the wharf, like the rest. I wrote to the District Engineer, calling his attention to the matter, and this morning saw the Resident Engineer about the matter, and since the piles are driven they will not sanction any alteration. As it—in my estimation—is a poor and incomplete job, I should recommend; your Board to either not accept it as it now stands, or else to accept the contractor's offer to draw them and drive them again as required for £4.—1 am, &c, Tiros. C. Bayldon, Harbor Master."