CO129-350 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 130

General Letter

No 63.

KOWLOON CANTON RAILWAY

British Section.

Sir J..Barry & Partners

Consulting Engineers.

Duplicate

C. O.

32972

Rec

9 SEP 08

Chief Resident Enginesh

Office 123

Kowloon

11th July 1908

Gentlemen,

1.

On 23rd June last when His Excellency was

walking through the line with me he noticed cracks in the

abutments of a couple of the road bridges, which seem to have

made him rather anxious, as I got instructions about two days

after to stop work on Bridge 4 till further orders.

2.

On receipt of this order I had an inter-

view with the Honourable Colonial Secretary and explained that

this order was interfering rather in the purely engineering

side of my work, and that, to stop what I was now doing in

Bridge 4 was shifting responsibility from me on to the Gov-

ernment. In an interview with His Excellency I explained

that I was adding weight to Bridge 4 to test the foundation

before starting the arching. I said I did not consider

the crack as at all serious considering the nature of the

foundation and the fact that I was floating the bridge with

a very small weight per superficial foot or foundation.

3. His Excellency agreed to my proceeding with

the work but asked that the Honourable mirector of Public

Works might have a look at the work.

4. The Honourable Director of Public Works visited

the work and suggested that the bridge should be taken down

altogether, the foundations piled and the bridge rebuilt.

5. I had an interview with the Honourable

Colonial Secretary on the subject und told him that I con-

sidered