WATER SUPPLY IN CHRISTCHURCH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2629, 11 October 1909, Page 5

WATER SUPPLY IN CHRISTCHURCH.

PRAISE OF THE SPIRAL STEEL PIPES. In connection with a blow-out that occurred in the new water supply system that is being laid down in Christchurch, the City Surveyor, Mr. A. D. Dobson, paid high testimony to the value of spiral steel pipes. He told a reporter that at nine o’clock on Monday night one of his officers rang him up on the telephone to tell him that a “blow-out” had occurred at Sydenham. He had the water cut off at 9.30. and at eleven o’clock the pressure was on again and the leak was screwed up, and . next morning traffic was! able to go on as usual. He owed a great deal of the facility displayed to the fact that steel pipes had been used instead of cast-iron ones. If the latter had been laid down, the Sydenham leak could not have been stopped under twentyfour hours. There was no doubt, he added, that the steel pipes were better than the cast-iron ones in all respects. They were handier to handle, the joints fitted better, they were better adapted for resisting the effects of heavy traffic, and they cost half the price of iron ones. Heavy traffic, such as might be caused by a traction engine, would probably crack an iron pipe if it could not resist the pressure, but a steel pipe w'ould bend under the strain, and -would come out uninjured. All the technical journals that he had received from other countries showed that steel pipes were in high favor. They were now used in Melbourne for all works where water-pipes were required, and they had been adopted for the big work at Kalgoorlie, after a commission of experts sat in London to consider the question. Mr. Dobson said that although the “blow-outts” were troublesome, they were not at all serious," and. on the whole, he found very little to complain about in regard to the results of the inauguration of the scheme. Js a matter of fact, the citizens of Christchurch did not seem to realise the magnitude of the scheme. It w r as certainly one of the biggest schemes of the kind in the colonies. There were 100 miles of reticulation in it. ; nd he did not know of any other place where 100 miles had been put down at once, as bail been done in thisi city. He had now practically completed the work in the Central Ward, where 42 miles of pipes had been laid. At present about 30 miles were watered. It had all been done very quietly and without fuss, the leaks being stopped at once whenever they occurred. It had been shown by severe tests that the pipes would stand a very heavy pressure. The pressure at present was lOGlbs to the square inch.