Discussion. Extension of the Runway at R.N. Air Station, Belfast.

Abstract

R.N. Air Stations, said that the three fundamental requirements for carrying out the work by direct labour-namely, (a) a capable engineering staff ; (b) adequate and suitable mechanical plant ; and (c) a supply of suitable labour-had all been available.As a result of the war in the Far East, the Department possessed adequate mechanical plant of a heavy civil engineering type, but it was in varying condition owing to financial stringency on repairs ; and it had been necessary to purchase some special machines as a charge t o the job.There were about 160 main items of heavy plant comprising excavators, tractors, dumpers, concrete-laying and finishing plant, rollers, compressors, cranes, pumps, and the necessary transport vehicles.One of the first requirements a t Belfast had been the setting-up of a local plant-repair depot capable of doing all the normal running repairs and some larger ones. It included a large workshop, a machine shop, a welding and blacksmith's bay, a general store, an inflammables store, a plant and spare-parts store, and offices. They had occupied a covered area of about 16,000 sq. ft. There had also been about 6,000 sq. f t of hard standing, and 1, OOO sq. ft of concrete wash-down area.Those facilities had been under the direct charge of a civil engineer and manned by one foreman of plant, one leading man or chargehand of plant, one leading fitter, five fitters, one turner, one welder blacksmith, and about 70 artisans and operators.Details of all the types of plant used and of the difficulty (arising out of their extended use) of keeping them running, would be too extensive to present.Practically all those machines had been charged t o the job on a weekly rate basis which approximated t o two-thirds of the Contractors' Plant Association rates.Some weekly consumption figures were as followed ,) 9 , (400 cu. ft) Some details of costs were given in Tables 2,3, and 4. The repair figures given in Table 4 represented 85% of the total cost of plant repairs, the remaining 15% being for miscellaneous repairs and nonweekly-rated plant.