Nearly 100 men are now working on Dawson & Hall projects in the city, 50 of them at the new hospital and the rest at the Bank of Commerce building and the bridge. Work is also starting on the Territorial houses, where framework will be pushed ahead this fall. Good carpenters are still in demand on those jobs, which will take about two and a half years to complete. Local labor is being used as far as possible.
Yukon Superintendant for Dawson & Hall, Glenn Harris is now settled with his staff in the neat office building across the river, which boasts the first telephone
on the other side. Other key men in the organization are Accountant Tom Bell from Vancouver, General Foreman Gordon Wooley and Hospital Superintendant Pete Shoemaker, both fom Vancouver. Mr. Shoemaker has just arrived in Whitehorse from jobs outside for the company, one for Alaska Pine in Vancouver, the other at the Haney Correctional Institute, which is the new jail,built recently to replace the ancient Oakalla in Burnaby.
A couple of years ago when Dawson & Hall were building the big Granville Bridge in Vancouver, there were so many "sidewalk superintendents" on the job that the company issued a little bulletin for their benefit. The work across the river here is not attracting as much attention, but for the Sunday afternoon drivers who go over to look at the new hospital site, here is a run-down of what is going on there.
The fill for the bridge approaches is slowly building up across Whiskey Flats. Work on the deck of the bridge will be started next week and the whole thing will be completed this year.
Going along past the new bridge the first turn to the left leads to the hospital site over a bumpy road which has not been improved by steady heavy traffic of heavy vehicles. At the top of the first rise, and to the right, is a large excavation where the two-storey 30 x 179 foot married and male quarters building will be erected. Just south of this area, and close to the hill are two temporary houses, one of them for the architects representative, the other for Dawson & Hall. These houses will be replaced later on with three doctors' homes.
Next on the left is the area where the nurses' aid residence, a 39 x 133 two-story building, is planned and still on the river side of the road the next spot is cleared for the nurses' residence, to be 30 x 178, two-storey.
The road turns sharply to the right here, and on a cleared spot to the right is is the site of the boiler house. Nothing has been done so far on this building. The road winds past piles of lumber, the plywood is used for temporary forms and other lumber is also for early stages of construction. At the top of the small hill is the
hospital itself, which will be a two-storey and basement structure. This is coming along on schedule, as are all the other Dawson & Hall jobs. The footings have been poured, three wings are partially formed for foundation walls and some of the reinforcing steel is now in.
Superintendent Shoemaker expects no delay in the work, with supplies coming in on schedule, and before freeze-up the workmen will have all the first floor slab finished.
Visitors to the construction site should also take a look at the huge
concrete mixer, plainly visible from this side of the river, and reached by continuing along the road beside the river keeping to the left. The mixer, which weighs about 15 tons, is a Koehring No. 28-S model, capable of handling up to 45 yards an hour. Before
being moved North the mixer was at the Haney jail. It came over the railroad in sections, about two weeks ago, and was set up on the concrete base in three days. Two men are in charge of the mixer, which will remain in place until all concrete work on the hospital buildings is finished.
Everything is weighed in the mixer, with three hoppers at the top for cement, sand and gravel. A pump at the river's edge sends water into a storage tank, this
water then goes into the mixer and when the proper weights of the ingredients have been reached the Johnson batching plant mixes up the cement for about two minutes, and then it goes into a waiting dumptruck to be taken over and poured into the forms.
Sand and gravel for the mixture comes from a pit about six miles up the road on the east side of the river, the availability of these materials being a factor in work going ahead on schedule.
Sketches of the completed buildings will be obtained and as soon as possible will appear in the Star for the benefit of readers.
