The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-05-05
THE WORK ON THE HARBOR
CONTRACTORS HAVE EVERY
THING IN READINESS.
Much of the Material Shipped by the
Mary Z. Foster from San Francisco
Outline of Work.

SAN FtANtiSCU, April 2o.-Nurk |
upon the construction of the naval
coaling station at Honolulu will be
rushed from this time until its com
pletion. which is expected to be in
about eight months. The contracts
signed by the officials of the depart
ment have been received by the con
tractors, Cotton Brothers of Oakland,
who will construct the piers, and
buchanan d Campbell, who will do the
dredging for the slips. Word preced-
ed the actual arrival of the for
mally signed contracts by telegraphic
notification from Washington to the
men who will do the work that they
would be given jobs, and they have
made all possible preparations for the
prosecutions of the undertaking.
The work of dredging for the slips
will he one of some magnitude, as
there will have to be removed from
the bottom of the bay something like
100000 cubic yards of coral. There
will be some little of this which will
offer easy dredging, as it is soft and
partially disintegrated by the flow of
fresh water from the stream which
comes into the bay at point close to
the site of the coaliAg station. The
greater part of the dredging, however.
will be in hard coral, which will have
TO be blasted before it can be eleVat-
ed and sent ashore. For the purpose
of meeting the conditions which OBJ
tain in the character of the bottom
upon which they must work, Mr..
buchanan has DESIGNED and is now
! having constructed Il complete new
dredge or shovel which will be used
to bring to the surface the broken
coral rock after the blasting from the
| bottom.
The tmbers for the barge, which
will carry the dredge, have been got
out here and put together, so 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, and there
will be ready for the machinery, when
it has been made and shipped, the plat
form 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 il is mounted upon
Il hatCar. There must be in the ease
of the dredge an entirely new plan OF
turntablp and boom. for the reason
| lllbi III lnIS ttSt lIt uItbRt IlNlSl Ut
constructed to go 10 depth of 2SE
feet below low water. Over the area
which is to be prepared for berths fol
the vessels coming in to coal there is
now from two to eighteen feet of wa
ter at the ebb tide, and there will he
work for large gang of men all the
time during the carrying out of the
contract.
There will be first Il blasting out o
the coral rock. which will be RAISED
and dumped into a hopper on board I
scow which will he moored alongsid,
the dredge. On this scow there vii
be placed powerful pump, which viii
keep such a stream of water flowing
through the system of pipes leading t.
the shore that every bit of the cora
will be deposited on the low lands
about the docks and coal-bunkers. Al
the machinery, except the turntabl,
and boom, will be made here under the
supervision of the men i'm the employ
of the shovel company. II is expected
that actual excavation Will begiI
about the LIST of June.