If the quantity of muck coming in was not as desired, a stop had to be made to alter the size of the opening, and if, while this was being done, the exhaust valves were not closed quite tight, the silt pressure on the face of the shield would force it back against the iron. This fact was sometimes taken advantage of when a full opening did not let in the desired quantity, for the shield could be shoved, allowed to return, and shoved again.
The time taken to shove in silt varied greatly with the quantity of material taken in; for shoving and mucking combined, it averaged 66 min., with an average of 13 cu. yd. of muck disposed of, or about 5 min. per cu. yd. of material.
Pushing Back the Jacks.—This was a simple matter, and merely consisted in making the loose push-back connection to each jack as it had to be sent back. Some of the jacks became strained and bent, and had to be taken out and replaced. Where there was silt pressure against the face of the shield, the hydraulic pressure had to be kept on until the ring was erected. In such cases, only two or three jacks could be pushed back at a time, and only after a segment had been set in position, and the pressure taken on it, could the next jack be pushed back, and so on around the ring. The time between the finish of the shove (hydraulic pressure turned off) and the placing of the first segment, was occupied in pushing back the bottom jacks and cleaning dirt off the tail of the shield, and averaged about 14 min.
Erecting the Iron Lining.—As soon as the shove was over, the whole force, when in silt, set to work at building up the iron and then tightening the bolts so that the shield could be shoved again. A section of the tunnel with bolting and working platform is shown on [Plate XL].
In the early part of the work, when the ground was being excavated ahead of the shield, the whole force, with the exception of those working in front of the shield, was engaged in erecting the iron, but, as soon as this was done, most of the men returned to the mucking, and only the iron workers continued to tighten up bolts. On the other sections, where the shield was shoved into the silt without excavating ahead, as soon as the shove was completed, the whole force was engaged in the erection of the iron and the tightening of the bolts, until they were so tight that the shield could be shoved again for another ring.
The iron was brought into the tunnel on flat cars, two segments to the car, and was lifted from the car and lowered into the invert of the shield by a block and fall and chain sling, as shown in [ Fig. 2, Plate XXXIX]. The bottom three or four segments were pushed around into position with the erector, the head simply bearing against the longitudinal flange without being attached to the segment; the upper segments, however, were, as shown in [ Fig. 2, Plate XXXVIII], and [Fig. 1, Plate XLI], attached to the erector, by using the expanding bar and the erector head designed by Mr. Patrick Fitzgerald, the Tunnel Superintendent. This was found to be a most convenient arrangement.
The single erector attached to the center of the shield was able to erect the iron as fast as it could be brought into the tunnel, and even when the weight of the segments was increased 25% (from 2,060 to 2,580 lb.) it always proved equal to its task, although occasionally one of the chains in the mechanism broke and delayed the work for an hour or so; but the sum of all the delays from this cause and from breaks and leaks in the hydraulic line only averaged 13 min. per ring. The operating valve which was first used was a four-spindle turning valve, but this was replaced by a sliding valve which was found to be much more satisfactory, both in ease of operation and freedom from failure.