The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-08-01
CHANNEL ALMOST
CLEAR At LAST
MANY YEARS woBK TO OPEN Up
PEARL HARBoR FOR LARGE
BATTLBsuPB
Lrrom saLnraay's AdveTIIseT.l }

From Saturdays Advertiser.)
After ten years battle with the eie'
ments. against storms, heavy seas,
hint.iike coral formations and many
disappointments, the entrance TO Pearl
Harbor has been completely opened by
the contractors and from the open sea
to the harbor basin opposite the Pearl
Harbor naval drydock there is now a
navigable channel thirty feet deep and
500 feet in width The first contract
TO open the bar was practically fail
ure ten years ago. The present con
tractors have succeeded.
There remains at the outer end of
the channel, not far from deep sea wa
ter three OF four feet of coral to be re-
moved aggregating less than 10000
cubic Yards of material, and this is in
finitesimal in comparison to the 635,000
cubic Yards lying under the waters
when the present contractors. the Ha-
waiian Dredging Company, took hold
less than three years ago, and it has
required almost day and night work
with several dredging machines con-
stantly at work to gouge that hard
material out and dump it in the deep
ocean.
Reports came up from Pearl Harbor
yesterday showing blue print map on
which the channel from sea to drydock
is shown and the dredged out places
appear in dead white. Where there is
material still to be dredged is indicat-
ed in shaded lines and there are few
of these shaded lines left.
To "sandpaper' Channel.
Beyond hard work on the inner sec
tion of the bar and considerable work
on Waipo Point near the harbor
proper, the contractors have reached
the sandpapering' stage, which is
| the cleanup part of the work and is
one of the most difficult, for all the
| bottom of the channel must be evened
and iutting points smoothed off uni
formly with the remainder of the floor
President w. F. Dillingham;, of the
Hawaiian Dredging Company, stated
yesterday that the outer channel sec
tion is almost completed. There still
is a point in section two which is tC
be dredged, but in the two sections
there are approximately $4,000 cubic
| yards to be removed. Section 2 hal
been reduced from 10000 cubic yard
to 100000 yards. This is composed o.
the hardest rock the company found il
all its dredging operations.
Waipio Point has been half removed
There were originally $4,000 cubi
yards to remove and this has been re
duced to 2s6,000. Kuahua shoal,
, tongue of reef extending out from Kua
hua Island the site for the powde
) magazine for the naval station, is be
, ing removed at the rate of 10000
cubic yards per month This tongue 0
! coral is directly opposite the entranC
= to the drydock.
t To Finish on Time.
t Upon the rapidity with which tn
I; bottom of the dredged channel can b
: sandpapered" depends whether til
contractors win be able to complete tn
job on time. They have until Decen
Der TO finish this vast work, and the
= = believe they can accomplish the tas
= about on time. 1t has been a gigant
work, and all the dredging operation
are next in importance to that beir
done at Panama.
3 A merchant steamer can now neg
tiate the channel with ease, but Il
:. channel has not yet been supplied Wi
- navigation marks, except those for Il
= guidance of the contractors, and T.
- contractors hope that no vessels W
= go to Pearl Harbor until they have
:. their dredging machines out of the WI
= as their mooring lines form a spider
~ web under the waters.
p Piles are being driven into the be
y tom of the drydoek excavation to p
= the upper crust to the one directly u
~ derneath. The steamer General Hu
~ bard is expected here Sunday from t
q q Coast with cargo of piles so th
l the work win be conducted expedition
ly as soon. as they are landed. Mi
- thousand piles are to be driven in t
~ eight hundred foot length of the dI
= dock excavation, and when finished t
10 enclosed section will be pumped o
y and concreting win then be started.