Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-11-04
RAINS CAUSING
BUCKLINGUP Of
Street PAVING
Wood Blocks on Queen Street,
Cracked BY Heavy Trucks,
Swell When Saturated

Queen street today for distance
OF 100 yards or so in the business sec
ton resembles closely the torn-up floor
OF Kilauea's crater. Continued rains
or the past four or five days have
sweiled the blocks that stand on end
to form its wooden pavement and
these blocks. figuratiyely speaking,
have put their crowded elbows togeth-
er and lifted themselves into the air.
Four men under the guidance OF q
luna are now at work on the buckled-
up street. tearing out with picks, axes
and other instruments large sections
Of the wooden blocks in order to re-.
Iieve the strain that Is causing them
to rise.
Not since the pavement was laid In
1908 has such a thing occurred. and
road experts are entertaining differ
emit views regarding the best way to
put the street back into proper shape.
Mayor Lane says that twice in his
memory the paving has buckled up
slightly under heavy rains. but that
never before has 1t risen high enough
to tear itself apart
It is believed bv some that the prom.
er way to overcome the present diff
Guilty and keep it from spreading and
taking in the entire street is to tak6
out an entire length OF the blocks on
each side of the street next to the
gutter. their places to be filed in with
concrete. The blocks are about fonr
or five inches wide, four inches high
and eight inches in length.
Remove crosswise Sections.
In addition to taking out sections NJ
the paving along the cutters, 1t will
also be necessary probably to take out
sections at given distances crossWise
with the street This will insure room
for the wet blocks to expand in al
directions.
AS well known road worker ex-
planned today. this is not a. sudden
happening. It has been coming on
gradually month by month, the stree.
rising up here and there only to be
pressed down by heavy trucks, with
the result that each time the truck
passed over the blocks are cracked
slightly. The present rains have mere
ly filed the cracks with moisture, and
the swelling that followed soon had
the street rearing up In many spots.
One interesting question that comes
up In connection with the restoration
of the street to passable highway is
whether or not the repair work neces-
STATED will be greater than that pro-
vided for in the city statutes. Some
thing will have to be used to I'LL In
the la3ge areas that have already been
torn out by the workmen. and Mheth-
er this material will be more than is
allowed for road maintenance under
the now famous Act 1854 is causing
good bit of speculation. It is the gen.
eral belief that concrete is the only
sensible filling to use In these places,
and concrete filing, according to the
belief of some, will violate the road
ordinance.
Engineer L. NJ Whitehouse, who
visited the section of Queen street
at noon today where the wooden
block paving Is buckling up from the
heavy rains. says that his plan for
placing the street back in shape is
to fill In the spaces where blocks
of necessity have been removed, with
q mixture of asphalt macadam. II is
believed that enough elasticity will
be found in the asphalt to take care
Of all further swelling. This will be
temporary repair. being kept In only
long enough to allow for more wood
en- blocks to be brought from the
Puget Sound district