After the construction of the sand-walls was discontinued, the space behind the bench-walls, between the neat line and the rock, was filled with rock packing, which was generally built, part way up at least, as a dry wall ahead of the construction of the bench-wall, or it was put in place simultaneously with the concrete, care being taken to keep it as free as possible for the drainage of any water there might be. Toward the latter part of the work, owing to the difficulty of getting sufficient rock packing during the day, a rough back form
for the bench-wall was built at the neat line, in places where the section was at all large, and the space was filled with rock afterward, generally at night or on Sundays.
In the sections where water-proofing was required, where no sand-wall was built, the rock was taken out for 2 ft. outside the neat line, if the excavation was not already that far out (at the expense of the contractors, who preferred to do this rather than build the sand-walls for the short sections required), so that there would be sufficient room for placing the water-proofing on the back of the bench-walls, as shown by [Fig. 18], E. The water-proofing of these sections was left until just before the arch was to be built, and after being placed it was protected by a single row of brick laid on edge before the rock packing was filled in.
[Arches.]—The centering used for the arches is shown very clearly in Fig. 4, [Plate XXV], which is a view of the back end of the first section built at Weehawken. In this part of the tunnel, the lower part of the arch, about 5 ft. above the bench-wall, was built first, as previously referred to, but the centers, as will be seen, were built so that they could be used for the whole of the arch. The forward bulkhead, and the shoveling platform on a section being built, are shown in Fig. 3, [Plate XXVI].
The front bulkheads used were made in nine sections, bolted to a 2½ by 2½-in. angle bent to the radius of the arch, as shown in Fig. 3, [Plate XXVI], and fitting on the end of the lagging; when set they were braced partly against the rock of the roof and partly against the gantry. After the ribs and part of the lagging had been set by the night gang for a fresh section of arch, the braces holding the bulkheads were knocked out, the concrete placed during the day having set sufficiently by this time; the whole of the bulkhead was then easily moved ahead, sliding along the lagging to the forward end, and made ready for the next day’s work. The middle section at the top was taken out temporarily, to facilitate working at the sides, until it was needed.
The traveling gantry used in handling the concrete for the arch is shown in Fig. 1, [Plate XXVI], which also shows the form for the circuit-breaker chamber, and a car of rock packing on the track beneath.
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.