Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1899-05-05
WORK ON OUR HARBOR

San Francisco, April 49,
Work upon the construction of the
naval coaling station at Honolulu
will be rushed from this time un.
til lite completion, which is expect
ed to be 10 about eight months.
The contracts signed by the Off
Gals of the department have been
received by the contractors, Cot.
ton Brothers OF Oakland, who
will construct the piers, aud Buck
man & Campbell, who will do the
dredging for the slips. Word
preceded the actual arrival of the
formally signed contracts by tele.
graphic notification from Wash.
ipgton to the men who will do the
work that they would be given
jobs, and they have made ell pos.
sible preparations for the prose
cution of the undertaking.
The work Of dredging for the
slips will be one of some msgni-
tude, as there will have to be re-
moved FROM the bottom of the bay
something like 100, 900 cubic yards
of coral. There will be some lit
tie OF this which will offer easy
dredging, as it is soft and partial
ly disinteQrated by the flow of
fresh water from the stream which
comes into the bay at point close
to the site of the coaling station.
The greater part Of the dredging,
however, will be in hard coral,
which will have to be blasted be.
fore it can be elevated and sent
ashore. For the purpose of meet
ing the conditions which obtain in
the character of the bottom upon
which they must work, Mr.. Buck
man has designed and is now hav.
ing constructed a complete new
dredee or shovel which will be
used to bring to the surface the
broken coral rock after the blast
ing from the bottom.
The timbers for the barge, which
will carry the dredge, have been
got out here and put together, go
that, after the dismantling and
shipping to Honolulu, there will
be little delay and less expense
in putting up the float. These
timbers have now been shipped in
the Mary Foster, aud there will
be ready for the machinery, when
it has been made aud shipped, the
floating platform upon which it is
to work. The dredge is of the
pattern OF steam shovel which is
used on the railroads OF the West,
where it is mounted upon flat
car. There must be in the case
of tho dredge an entirely new
plan of turntable and boom, for
the reason that in this case the
dredge must be constructed to 90
to depth of 285 feet below low
water. Over the area which is to
be prepared for berths for the
vessels coming in to coal there is
now from two to eighteen feet of
water at the ebb tide, and there
will be work for a large gang Of
men all the time during the carry
ing out of the contract.
There will be first blasting out
of the coral rock, which will be
raised and dumped into hopper
on board a scow which will be
moored alongside the dredge. On
this scow there will be placed a
powerful pump, which will keep
such q stream of water flowing
through the system of pipes lead
ing to the shore that every bit of
the coral will be deposited on the
low lands about the docks and
coal bunkers. All the machinery,
except the turntabls and boom,
will be made here under the
supervision of the men in the
employ of the shovel com pany. 1t
is exp ,cted that actual excavation
will begin abont tho Lot of lima