Dear Editor,
In response to my SN letter of March 21, Mr. King, PRO of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has concluded that the defects which I had listed on the newly constructed Cummings Canal Koker Door were rather superficial and therefore they will have no effect on the integrity and durability of the new door since supervision of construction was carried out by a company of competent engineers and technicians who were satisfied with the quality of materials and workmanship and they have made no adverse comments during construction on the qualitative requirements of the door.
It was observed that the workers had no drawing or specification requirements to satisfy and hence they were using the old door as a template to construct the new one. My comments were not based on any drawings or specs either but on good engineering practice which were adopted and found successful elsewhere but found lacking at this koker for constructing its replacement door.
The door has since been installed (minus its tackle) and it was observed that river water was passing under the door into the Cummings Canal indicating that there is a gap between the door plank and the Koker floor. Water was leaking through crevices on the door’s face also. Therefore as claimed by Mr. King the tar treatment has not sealed the gaps/cracks and afforded the protection he so eloquently stated because tarring is not a sealing agent nor a wood preservative in the sense of being poisonous to destructive organisms but helps to prevent weathering which causes mechanical and chemical disintegration of the surface of the wood.
It is worth noting that greenheart or any other hardwood for that matter does not get stronger the longer it stays in water as there is no evidence to support this claim made by Mr. King. In fact greenheart increases its strength properties as it loses moisture and shrinkage and drying continues with time.
Caulking cotton may have been an alternative material to okum to seal the grooves on the door planks but it should have been saturated with tar before placement in its pre-tarred grooves and before the planks were finally assembled. As was observed, many grooved areas had no coverage as tarring was done in a cold state after the planks were assembled.
Finally, Mr. King stated that Mayor Green is expected to recommend the fabrication and installation of steel gates for all M&CC sluices. Based on a strength/weight ratio and with an efficient preservative treatment, greenheart constructed doors would be better than steel as a reasonable first cost and low maintenance charges. After all the M&CC’s track record on the maintenance of its equipment has been extremely dismal and to add steel sluice doors to that list would be a maintenance tragedy of enormous proportion for the citizenry.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
