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

Queen street today for "a distance
OF 100 yards or so in the Business sec
ton resembles closely the torn-up floor
OF Kilanea's crater. Continued rains
OF 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 a
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.
lieYe 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
ent 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 u risen high enough
to tear itself apart t
II Is believed hv some that the props
er way to overcome the present diff.
Guilty and keep ii from spreading and
taking in the entire street is to tako
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 four
or five inches wide, four inches high
and eight inches In length. z
Remove crosswise Sections.
In addition to taking out sections of
the paving along the cutters, it 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 all
directions.
As a well known road worker ey,
happening. 1t has been coming on
gradually month by month, the street
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.
yided for in the city statutes. Some
thing will have to be used to fill in
the large areas that have already been
tornsout by the workmen, and wheth-
er this material will be more than is
allowed for road maintenance under.
the now famous Act t64 is causing
good bit of speculation. 1t is the gen.
eral belief that concrete is the only
sensible filing to use in these places,
and concrete filing, according to the
belief of some, viii 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
mixture of asphalt macadam. 1t 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.