Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910: The Bergen Hill Tunnels. Paper No. 1154Lavis, F.
History
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910: The Bergen Hill Tunnels. Paper No. 1154
Lavis, F.
Civil engineering -- Periodicals; Railroad tunnels -- Design and construction
A gang of four rough carpenters and a foreman was employed on the day
shift; they moved and set the bench-wall forms or sand-wall forms, as
the case might be, and moved the traveling gantry into position. This
was done in the afternoon, and required about 3 hours. They also took
out, cleaned, repaired, and set all ditch forms, all passenger forms,
circuit-breaker forms, and did all other repair work. The ladder forms,
the refuge-niche forms, and overhead conductor pocket forms were
attended to by one man, who set, removed, cleaned, and repaired them.
The carpenters on the night shift set the arch centers and gantries,
also the manhole forms when needed. The conduit layers on the night
shift laid up half the 4-way conduits (3-high) and one-third of the
single ducts (4-high). This one gang laid the conduits in two sections
of bench-wall each night, that is, one section at Weehawken and the
other at the western end.
In concreting the bench-walls, the concrete was first placed on the side
containing the single conduit until it reached the top of the four tiers
laid, then the concrete gang was turned over to the side with the 4-way
conduits while four more tiers of single conduits were laid, the work
thus progressing, the conduits being laid on one side while concrete was
placed on the other. On the side of the 4-way conduits the concrete was
built in two layers while that on the side of the single ducts was built
in three; the interval between the different layers was not sufficiently
long to prevent a complete bond being obtained, and there were only one
or two instances where there was any mark on the face to indicate a
break.
After the work had been in progress some time, it was found to be quite
feasible to build all the 4-way conduits at night and half the single
conduits, that is, 6 ducts high, as the mandrels proved amply sufficient
to hold them in place; in fact, had it been necessary, the writer has no
doubt that all the ducts might have been laid and held in place with
very little extra precaution, by the use of the expanding mandrels,
as described under the head of conduit laying. A =V=-shaped joint about
½ in. deep was made between each section of bench-wall so that the
expansion cracks would follow this joint rather than show irregularly on
the face. These joints divided the face into the even 25-ft. panels, and
were very effectual in concealing what few cracks there were.
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