The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-01
WHAT It WOULD COST
TO STRAIGHTEN PEARL
HARBOR'S CROOKED
LApI:

Pearl Harbor bar has been removed,
but it Is still necessary to straighten
the interior channel in order to enable
ships of the first-class to safely go to
the naval station site.
Vague statements have been pub
lished concerning the amount and
character of material to be removed
from the banks of this inner channel.
and of the probable cost thereof.
These facts and estimates are not
vital to the development and use of
Pearl Harbor, because a channel al
ready exists from deep sea to the in
nermost recesses of the harbor, with a
minimum depth of thirty-one feet,
ranging upward to a depth of approx
imately one hundred and forty feet.
with an average of forty feet. But
when vessels worth 100000 each are
to regularly use channel, it is but
common precaution to remove projec-
tions. splits and shoulders, so as TO give
a straightaway course. This is what
IS pTopOStustO pC dOic.
After careful investigation and iR-
squiry from the most reliable available
sources, The ADVERTISED able to state
that the following figures are approx
inately correct:
The amount of material removed from
the QUITE, bar was 100000 cubic yards,
and the cost thereof $125, 000
The material removed was almost en-
tirely sea sand, with some mud and
loose coral.
The amount of material to be hand
led in order to straighten the inner
channel so as to make it amply ropmy
and safe for any number of naval and
merchant ships of the largest class, is
1 100000 cubic yards.
The great bulk of this material is
mud and soft sand. with a small
amount of coral. most of it soft
enough to be dredged
1t will cost far less proportionately
to handle this material than it did to
dredge the outer bar
There was a constant swell on the
bar, the waves not infrequently break
ing onto the deck of the dredge.
The channel dredging will be in
water as smooth as a pond.
The material on the bar had to be
deposited in scows. which, in turn, had
to be towed a quarter to half a mile
and there dumped
The banks of the inner channel are
so abrupt that material can be dumped
a hundred feet or so on either side of
fall on the bank. and in the other, into
1Ct, ~ TISaxty OH
without shoaling the channel.
The work on the bar was frequently
by storms, one dredge be-
ng totally wrecked.
The work in the channel can proceed
lninterruptedly, night and day.
Engineers are unwilling to give def
mite preliminary estimates of cost
full data. This can only be
by complete behring's. These
nave not yet been made, but a careful
superficial examination has been made
md piles driven on all the points 20 be
'emoved, and it is a safe assertion to
make that if as large a proportion of
he material to be removed consists of
mud and sand as the available infor-
nation indicates. the work can be done
or $500 900 to $3.50, 600.
The very highest estimate does not /
xceed $500, 900, and it will probably cost
much less. /
The Strengthening of the inner chan y
eel involves no engineering problems.
is simply a question of lifting given !
uantity of material few hundred /
aet at so much yard. In other words,
is purely one of dollars and cents d
nd compared with the isues at stake,
xx-iII he h
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