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C09] 
ON THE DOVER HARBOUR WORKS, 4.87 
will be filled with chalk obtained by sloping or ‘scarping’ the clifls 
immediately behind the wall. The ground so formed will, in the first 
instance, be utilised for the formation of the block building yards and 
the erection of the workshops, stores, and offices required for the con- 
struction of the east arm and South Breakwater. 
A temporary yard for the service of the Admiralty Pier extension 
has been formed on the beach in front of the South-Eastern Railway 
Company’s ‘ Town’ Station. 
The blocks for the reclamation wall are built at Sandwich, where a 
large quantity of ballast—i.e. sand and shingle—eminently suitable for 
the manufacture of concrete has been obtained by the contractors. The 
blocks, and a considerable quantity of ballast, are now brought from 
Sandwich by lighters, but a light railway at present under construction 
will, when completed, deliver material direct on to the reclaimed yard. 
Ballast is also obtained from Dungeness, but, being practically free from 
sand, requires to be mixed with the material from Sandwich before it is 
used for block-making. 
Portland cement of the highest quality, manufactured under con- 
tinuous inspection, analysis, and test, is alone used in any of the per- 
manent works. 
It is feared that the patience of the meeting must already have been 
severely tried by the length of this paper, and a subject so largely 
technical. Even at the risk of being tedious it is considered that this 
opportunity should not be lost for a reference to the inconvenience, 
discomfort and serious delay experienced during last winter from the 
interruptions to the passenger service from the port. 
That the interruptions were largely due to the position of the works 
during a season unexampled for the number of heavy south-westerly 
gales cannot be questioned. 
The exact cause of this will be easily understood by reference to the 
Plate on which the direction of S.W. winds is represented. The seas 
brought up Channel by gales from and near this quarter, and outside the 
shelter of the Admiralty Pier, travel on until they strike the western 
face of the East Pier and recoil therefrom on to the landing-stages on the 
eastern side of the Admiralty Pier, which stages in similar gales had pre- 
viously been available. 
That this action would occur and become stronger as the East Pier 
advanced seaward, without a corresponding advance of the Admiralty 
Pier, was evident before the inconvenience was actually experienced. 
Tn order to minimise the delay two steps were taken by the Harbour 
Board. First, an entirely new landing-stage was constructed near the 
outer end of the Admiralty Pier, where the disturbance was much less 
felt than at the stages nearer the shore. This was frequently available 
when it was impossible to approach the older berths. 
Secondly, negotiations were opened with a view if possible to delay 
further progress with the East Pier until the extension of the Admiralty 
Pier was sufficiently advanced to give the required shelter. It was, how- 
ever, found that the cost of retarding the work would be so great that 
the financial position of the Board did not justify this course being 
adopted. 
The advance of the masonry extension of the Admiralty Pier is not 
likely to be sufficient to give much additional shelter during the coming 
winter, but the large number of piles in the temporary stage will, as 
