Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910 | Page 9

short time, when the ventilation at the western end was very bad, four crews were worked, day and night crews in each tunnel; but, as a general rule, the method of working three crews was preferred by the men, and was less expensive for the contractor.
At the Hackensack end, 4-yd., Allison, one-way, dump cars were used, being handled by "dinky" locomotives, of which there were three in use up to October, 1907, and four after that. One 15-ton Porter engine, with 10 by 16-in. cylinders, was used outside the tunnels for handling the trains (from 6 to 8 cars) on the dumps and to the crusher; the other three, 12-ton Vulcans, 9 by 14-in., were used in the tunnels. About 30 dump cars were in use, and of these there were generally from 3 to 6 under repair.
Generally, 4 cars were hauled out together, although 5 and occasionally 6 were handled. The work was generally arranged so that the heavy mucking shift alternated in the two tunnels, the two engines being worked there and a single engine in the other tunnel.
The tunnel engines left the cars on a track just outside the portal, from which they were made up into trains of from 6 to 8 cars and taken to the dump or crusher by the large "dinky."
The muck from the Central Shaft headings was loaded by hand into cars similar to that shown by Fig. 5, but smaller and having no door at the forward end. A double elevator took the cars to a platform about 20 ft. above the surface, where they were dumped by revolving platforms, similar to those at Weehawken, into storage bins or directly into wagons. The muck was all hauled away in wagons; part of it was used to fill some vacant lots, and part was hauled to the crusher at the Western Portal.
The method under which the best results were obtained was that in which a full round was blasted every 36 hours, securing an advance of practically 9 ft. of full section. During the first shift of the three, as soon as the blasting had been completed and lights strung, the shovel was moved forward, and cleaned up the floor to the main pile of muck, the material from the blast being scattered from 150 to 300 ft. back from the face; during this shift, also, the drillers mucked the heading and set up their drills, the muckers helping to carry in the columns and drills. During the second shift the main pile of muck was disposed of, leaving not more than 2 or 3 hours' work for the shovel on the third shift. This left nearly the whole of the third shift for drilling the lift holes.
Ventilation.--At Weehawken considerable difficulty was caused by fog and smoke accumulating in the tunnels after blasting. This was generally worse on days when the barometric pressure was low outside, and worse in the North than in the South Tunnel. A 6-ft. fan, driven by an electric motor, was installed in the cross-passage at Station 274, 900 ft. from the shaft, the headings at that time being about 300 ft. in advance of this point, to force the air from the South into the North Tunnel, drawing it in at the mouth of the South Tunnel and discharging it at the mouth of the North Tunnel, thus insuring a circulation in both tunnels, as shown in plan by Fig. 8.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.]
This necessitated, of course, that the cross-passages between that in which the fan was placed and the mouths of the tunnels should be blocked tight. There was some difficulty in keeping this blocking tight, owing to the force of the blasting blowing out the bulkheads. The fan, however, did good service when it and the bulkheads were in good order. The compressed air discharged from the drills kept the headings fairly clear, as well as that part of the tunnel between the headings and the fan. The fan was moved ahead to the next cross-passage at Station 277 when the work had progressed far enough, and was used there for some time; it was found, however, that by the time the excavation had reached Station 280, about 1,500 ft. from the shaft, there was practically no further difficulty from fog and smoke. No satisfactory explanation was found for this, as it would rather be expected that the ventilation and trouble with smoke and fumes from blasting would be worse as the distance increased between the mouth of the tunnel and the working face. One explanation was offered: That the blasting of the softer sandstone tended to create more and lighter dust than the heavier trap rock; whether or not this was so, it is a fact that there was far less trouble with fog and