Page 13 - Minutes of Proceedings of Civil Engineers Vol CXCV 1913-14 Part 1

,. f 'rr.oodinge.l TIIE WHITE STAR " DOCK AT SOUTIIAMPTON. 63 l,l l,lrtr same height. The floor of the trenoh was thus completely ,',,r'(!r'(xl with a blanket partly of clay and partly of concrete. llr'lnmping the Trench.-Another attempt rvrls now ma,de to l,rttrrp out the tr.ench, and this time with success. The old blow- Irllo 1yrr. found to be completely sealed, and it was possible to llsurn() building the wall in the dry, in the usual way. While l,lrirr rvrrs being done a large quantity of water and sand came in I.hrorrgh the timbering on the dock side of the trench. This was lrrrtil,lly stopped by tipping clay on to the bank outside it. But ,rll,lrough the pumping continued to be heavy, the work of lrrrilding the wall was pushed forward to completion, as there was tro sign of the timbering being dislocated, or of the foundations of thc wall being affected in any way. I)rcdging the Dock anil Channel.-The last item in the construc- l,iorr of portion A was the dredging of the dock to 40 feet below |,.W.O.S.T. As mentioned before, the dock has beenexcavated in l,lro dry to 30 feet below quay-level (11 feet below low water) and l,rrb of it to 45 feet below quay-level (26 feet below low water). By l,lris time (April, 1910), the walls of portion A were practically cotnpleted, and accordingly the contractors' bucket-ladder dredger " I )evon " started to cut through the enclosing bank and to deepen the ,Lrck. At first the progress made with this work was unsatisfactory, rr.trrl in order to expedite ittwo other dredgers were obtained. These rvcre the Merwede," a Dutch-built dredger which was specially " prrx:hased for the purpose, and the "'Walter Bibby," which was hired l'r'om the Preston Corporation, The railway-company's own dredger, 'Waterloort' l,lre " also assisted. The contractors'three dredgers were :r,t,l;ended by a fleet of eight steam hoppers and five dumb hoppers with l,rvo tugs and the railway-company's dredger by three steam hoppers, I lly wolking their plant day and night the contractors were able to 'White t' l)r'rprlre the dock for the arrival of the Star S.S. Olympic " in .l rrrre, 1911. By this time the dock was dredged to 40 feet, and the I,rrrning-basin outside it to 35 feet below L.W.O.S.T. The com- ;,:rrry's dredger deepened most of the approach-channel to 32 feet lu.l.rw low water, and the depth has now been increased to 35 feet l,lrrrrughout, Besicles the four dredgers, two floating grabs were orrrlrloyed in digging away close to the toe of the walls, where the lrr,rller dredgers could not reach. PonrroN B (Wer,r,s Burr,r rr Wernn). Dcaign of Wall,-This portion of the works, which included the sorrtlr end of berth No. 47, with berths Nos. 48 and 49, besides the