The daily morning Alaskan., 1900-02-02
NH|IE PASS ROAD
 ID BD|LD BUNKERS
Construction Engineer Now
 Here Making Plans.
SYSTEM TO BE MODERN
chief structure 10 He in skagway and Have n Capacity or 5000 Tons, ana Cost ss5,ooO.

The White Pass & Yukon railroad Is working on a plan for the erection along its lines of a system of elaborate, costly ard eapaciouS coal bunkers. One Is to be at Bennett, one at Skagway, and perhaps others at different points. The one at thls point is to be perhaps the finest and largest ever built in Alaska. lt Is to have a ca- paeltv of 1000 tons and will cost in the neighborhOod of s2s,ooo.
 s. F. Evans, an expert bunker and ele- vator constructor and mechanical engineer, in the employ of D. H. Robinson. one of the largest contractors in America, Is in the city making investigations and work ing on the plans for the bunkers. He has examined the site for the Skagwav bunk. CT already. The final decision as to the exact plans for the bunkers will not be made until aftei General Manager E. C, Hawkins arrives from the south and con. fers with Mr. Evans and Superintendent Rogers in regard to the matter.
 The general plan for the Skagwav bunk CTS is to have them built at the extreme outer end of what lsnow known as Moore's wharf. and to,hsVe them-so- arranged that coal can be conveyed right from a ship to the bunkers with a mechanical device, and elevated to such height that the cars can run along the bottom of the bunkers and receive full loads in short order, the coal to be carried out of the bunkers by gravity.
 It has been found by Mr. Evans that It will be necessary to cut a foundation for the bunkers out of the side of the cliffs rising from the waters at the end of the wharf. There is strip of shore land along the site covered with boulders and bristllng with rocky fronts of bluff that will have to be removed. thus neeessltat- ing much hard rock work. However else the matter might be viewed the voraeious toredo almost forces the constructor to the shore. Piles cannot withstand the toredo more than a few months, and it would be impossible to have new piles placed under the heavy bunkers.
 The convevors now in mind for lifting the coal from the ship to the bunkers are to be operated by a steam hoist, and to be worked in series, so that ship can be emptled of cargo in comparatively short time and at economical rates of handling. However, the plan is not yet fully devel- oped. ..- mo.
 The Bennett bunkers will probably be made with capacity of Soo tons, and so arranged that they will be available Tor steamers of Lake Bennett to go alongside on the outer side of the engines along the inner side and receive fuel by gravity. Steamers of the Upper Yukon are expected to in time use coal largely fl not exclusive ly, and the railroad company IS looking forward somewhat to good traffic from the coast to the interior in coal for the Yukon fleet.
 Mr. Evans, who has the engineering work in hand, has the honor of having done the mechanical head work in the con struetlon of some of the largest wheat ele- vators, bunkerS and wharves that the world has known. Notable among them have been the Great Northern terminal lm- provements at Seattle, elevators or similar improvements at New Orleans, Buffalo and and other eastern clties. The work has been done for Mr. Robinson as contractor, who built bunkers for the Great Northern from St. Paul to Spokane, and erected on the Great Lakes the largest wheat eleva- | for in the world,