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
The arches were built in 10-ft. sections, the ribs being spaced 5 ft.
apart, the end ribs of each section supporting the end of the lagging on
two adjoining sections. Five sets of lagging and ten ribs were used at
each place where the arch was being built, thus giving each section
practically 4 days’ set before removing the centers. Probably in the
greater part of the work the centers could have been removed in from 40
to 48 hours after the concrete had been placed, but 3 days was
considered the least time which would certainly be safe at all times,
and the contractors thought that the very slight additional expense
involved in leaving the centers up 4 days was more than warranted by the
additional feeling of security.
The lagging was made from 3 by 6-in. clear, hard pine, 10 ft. long,
dressed to about 2½ in. in thickness, about 5½ in. in width, and the
sides to radial lines. As it was placed, every third or fourth piece was
lightly nailed to the ribs; when the latter were released and taken
down, the nails pulled out, and the lagging was left in place until one
piece was pried out, allowing the others to fall. A light =A=-frame,
about 8 ft. long, spanning the bench-walls, was placed below, in order
to break the fall and allow the lagging to slide to the top of the
bench-walls rather than fall to the track beneath.
Cross-passages between the two tunnels were built every 300 ft., their
form being shown on Plate VIII of the paper by Mr. Jacobs. There were
two circuit-breaker chambers, one at Station 286 and the other at
Station 310. Steel doors are provided so that all the openings between
the two tunnels can be closed. At Station 294+24, the core-wall broke
through for a length of about 40 ft., and instead of filling this in,
a storage chamber 34 ft. long and 11 ft. wide, inside, was built there,
the form for which is shown in Fig. 2, Plate XXVI. This photograph, as
well as Fig. 1, Plate XXVI, a form for a circuit-breaker chamber, shows
the method of setting the steel doors in the forms, so that they were
built into the concrete instead of being fastened in with expansion
bolts afterward, thus showing a perfect fit and a much neater job.
During construction the arches in each tunnel were kept even with each
other, so that when the cross-passages were reached, they, and the
sections of arch which they joined, could be completed at one operation.
By the methods used on this work, one section of arch was easily built
in a shift, so that the monolithic construction of each section was
easily secured, and concrete, as wet as it was possible to handle with
shovels, could be used for all except the last 5 ft. or so at the top,
thus getting a structure which was as nearly impervious as possible
under the circumstances.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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