WATER SUPPLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 April 1940, Page 6

WATER SUPPLY

MJ CLEANING AND CONCRETING MAINS STEPS TO INCREASE FLOW. LOANS BOARD SANCTION LOAN PROPOSAL. Advice lias been received by i-lie Town Clerk. .Mr G. T. O’TTara Sinilh that the Local Government .Loans Board has sanctioned the proposed Waterworks Improvement Loan of £10.50(1, for submission to a poll of ratepayers. Incidentally, this will be the Hrsl loan poll to be taken in Masterton in 15 years. If the scheme is sanctioned, Ihe money will be expended in the eloanin,£>' and concrete lining of the 10-inch and 12ineh water mains from the reservoir to Masterton and of the 18-inch main from the intake 1o the reservoir, the lot al length of pipes to be so dealt with being 074.1 chains. The Borough Engineer, Mr C. R. Mabson. who explained the proposals to a "Times-Age" representative, said he estimated that a thirty per cent improvement in the flow of water would result in the two mains after they had been concrete lined. Once the pipes were so treated, no further trouble from incrustation was likely, as, following on the concrete lining, a thin brown fur coating was the only deposit on the lining. It was estimated that the work would take three or four months to complete, but it could be carried out only in the winter months when the pressure was sufficiently high to permit the closing down of one main. The ten inch main had been down for 40 years and the twelve inch for 26 years.

Judging from specimens of incrusted ' pipes and others lined with concrete ■ the advantages of the proposed con- ; crete lining are obvious. These pipes ’ will be displayed in the windows of Mr R. Russell and Mr H. E. Pither. so ' that the public may have an opportunity of forming an opinion on the merits of the proposals. ' Mr Mabson said the cleaning proposed would be carried out by the Tate process, by which means the main was concrete lined in the ground without the necessity of lifting, lengths of 300 ft being dealt with at a time. Scrapers wore first put through, followed by wire brushes, pulled by a winch. The main was then washed and dried out with mops. Before the lining was done all services were disconnnected and plugged. A Mandril, shaped like a bottle, was then pulled through the main, with compo for the concreting. I the concrete being poured in ahead of it. Tests carried out by the Auckland University for the Devonport Borough Council showed that the flow of water

in the concrete lined pipe, owing to the reduction of friction, was actually greater than that of the original pipe. The improvement in the flow depended. of course, on the degree of incrustation. Mr Mabson said that no corrosive action that was likely to prove detrimental had ever been found between the pipe and the lining. The Auckland City Council had set out on a programme of lining 44 miles of pipes, and other local bodies in New Zealand were also doing likewise. The Sydney City Council had in hand the expenditure of £1,000,000 for the concrete lining of all its mains. The scheme had been well tried out and its success was clearly indicated when important bodies were spending such large sums of money for that purpose. The Borough Council is required to prepare a special roll of ratepayers. Only ratepayers and the husband or I wife of a ratepayer are allowed to vote. The roll has to be authenticated by the Mayor and the local authority is required to publish once in each week for four successive weeks a notice setting out the purposes of the proposed loan, the sum proposed to be borrowed, the proposed security and provision for repayment. The Mayor is required to publish not less than four times a notice setting forth the date on j which the poll will be taken. It is intended to call a public meeting at a convenient date, at which the whole of the proposals will bo explained to the ratepayers.