PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
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feet of welded steel pipe, varying from 21 to 31 inches in diameter and including 1,325 feet laid on concrete piles extending seawards to the tanker berths. The dolphins were the responsibility of the Port Works Office of the Public Works Department while the Water Authority undertook the laying of the pipelines. By devoted and unremitting work this massive programme was completed within approximately 6 weeks. With customary and helpful efficiency, the Royal Navy contributed special discharging hoses for the tanker terminals, and made available the tug Encore.
Berthing and discharge at Hong Kong however, were not the only difficulties which were encountered. Tidal conditions, the presence of bars in the Pearl River and the restricted number of berths both in the river and in Hong Kong made well-planned scheduling essential. How successfully the Director of Marine and his staff met this requirement is demonstrated by the following statistics relating to the tanker shuttle service for the period June - December:
Tanker round trips Total lift
603 1,855.9 million gallons (8,283,944 long tons)
Towards the end of the year the existing difficulties were accentuated by the increasing winter salinity in the Pearl River. By November this natural trend had greatly curtailed the usefulness of the two downstream anchorages in the river. As the periods of maximum salinity were likely to occur in the opening months of 1964 when the water could be too saline to be used unless mixed with supplies from the reservoirs, an additional pipeline, 3,000 feet in length and equipped with pumping gear capable of handling between three and 25 million gallons of water a day, was laid towards the end of the year, connecting the Sham Tseng terminal with the reservoir at Tai Lam Chung. Bearing in mind that this expedient could be inadequate when the salinity reached its highest and when it might be necessary to divert a portion of the fleet to some alternative source of supply, plans to meet this eventuality were in hand at the time of writing.
Additional supplies of potable water were brought to the Colony in the deep tanks of normal merchantmen in the course of their regular trading voyages. Shipowners co-operated in these arrange- ments, at some inconvenience to themselves, by carrying the water