The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-01-09
Drydock Work First Thing.

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Drydock Work First Thing.
The bids for the drvdoek at Pearl
Harbor are to be opened February Is,
by which time it is hoped to expedite
the beginning of actual work on that
important undertaking. When the con
tract for the drydock is awarded. the
program of construction work for the
Improvement of Pearl Harbor will be
completed, as far as the Bureau of
Yards and Docks is concerned, for the
present. In about year or year and
half, the Bureau will take mn the
building of machine shops, storehouses
and wharf. Those structures can wait
for a while as it is more urgent to has
ten operations on the drydock and the
dredging. While those two projects
Will be in the hands of contractors two
officers of the Civil Engineer corps, C.
W. Parks and G. S. Burrell, who are
now at Pearl Harbor, will continue
there to supervise and keep an eye over
the progress of the work.
Full Description of Great Dock.
The Bureau recently prepared a mem
orandum of the big drydock. explaining
IN detail what it will be. This memo
randum was as follows:
Il. The drydoek at the naval sta
tlon, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is to be
the largest ever constructed by the
Navy Department. It's overall length
is 1875 feet, whereas the longest dock
previously constructed which is at Phil
adeiphla, IS 100 feet overall, and the
Puget Sound drydock, recently con
tracted for, is 863 feet, overall.
2. An innovation, so far, as Ameri-
can docks are concerned, is that there
Will be four caisson seats, two as usual
at the entrance to the drydock and
two others near the middle of the dock.
dividing the main structure into an in
ner and outer dock. There will be two
steel caisson gates and the ARRANGEMENTS
Will be such that with ship in the
inner dock the outer dock may be filed
and emptied independently, thus allow
ing the ship upon which the most ex-
tensive repairs are to be made to remain
IN the inner dock while ships with minor
repairs are being locked in rapid sue
cess1on IN the outer dock. By floating
the inner caisson from the drvdock,
ships of greater length than any now in
existence or planned could be locked.
3. A trapezoidal form of head has
been designed for this dock different
from any hitherto considered. Tt is ar
ranged so that three destroyers NAV be
locked side by side extending to the
very head end of the dock. leaving
room for three other small craft in the
inner dock. Bids will also be received
for the usual forms of V-shaped and
afehed head.
"a. The draft over sill at mean hioh
water will be thirty-fve feet. which is
more than any other dock excepting
the one at Puget Sound where the great
variation In tides required draft of
thirty eight feet. The conditions of
tide at Pearl Harbor are such that the
largest battleship may enter the dock
at any stage of the tide Concrete will
be used throughout in the walls and
floor. Granite lining will be used only
at the caisson seats and COPING at
entrance and material slides. The CON
dltlons for the use of concrete are he
lIeved to be more favorable at Pearl
Harbor than at any point in the United
States on account of the equable climate
and absence of frost.
Level and Clear Floor