Preparing to move the Cornish Pumphouse – January – July 2006
12 February 2006
Ray Hooker shows local members of Historic Places Trust a small selection of the artifacts he has collected. All artifacts were catalogued and recorded. Over a period of two weeks over 250 people took advantage of the opportunity to take guided tours of the site and see the pumphouse close up for the first time in many years.
3 March 2006
Weak ground to the south of the pumphouse was removed to reveal the building’s original foundations. Underdrains were installed in the area and then it was refilled with competent material capable of supporting the pumphouse for its ‘step out’ 26.5 metres to the south before beginning its journey approximately 300 metres west to its new home.
5 April 2006
Preload was added to the south of the pumphouse. This material acted as a weight to compress the ground ready for the move. It was removed after measurements confirmed that the route had been compressed sufficiently to hold the almost 2000 tonne weight of the building during transportation.
19 June 2006
Meanwhile the new site for the pumphouse has been prepared. The white dots superimposed on the picture show the building’s new position. To the right is Seddon Street and the historic Anglican Church that celebrated its centenary later in 2006. The replica poppet head on Upper Seddon Street is obscured by trees in the background.
4 July 2006
The bottom section of the pumphouse was clamped together using threaded stress bars that were screwed up tight. More internal bracing was added at the lower level.This held everything firmly in place during the move. In the foreground is the steelwork for slider beam #1, ready to move into position next to beam #2 that has already been poured.
10 July 2006
It may not look much, but this is the diamond wire saw in action. The machine in the foreground powers the wire which acts much like a cheesecutter. Here the north wall tunnel for slider beam #5 is cut through from inside the pumphouse. Later, when the weight of the pumphouse was supported on all five slider beams, the same machine completed the final cuts and separated the building from its foundations.
21 July 2006
While work continued on the pumphouse in the background, in the foreground the precast concrete slider beams were placed on the causeway in readiness for the move. The pumphouse passed over these beams which were then reused and ‘leapfrogged’ down the transport route ahead of the building by passing them through a trench in the causeway under the pumphouse.