Page 111 - KBHA Bulletin 16

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 The Harbour Board required longer and deeper berths to accommodate the new

generation of mail-ships (Athlone and Stirling Castles of 25,500 tons) and cargo
vessels. The Southern Modified Scheme, 1927-32, had proven that the new long

high-sided ships could not be berthed or undocked safely from berths aligned at

right-angles to the prevalent south-easter. This ruled out the NE-SW aligned
finger jetties shown in the 1903 harbour plan of Methven and Hammerlsey-

Heenan in favour of a NW-SE dock alignment. Furthermore, deep-water berths
could be made only farther off-shore. These requirements foreshadowed the now-

familiar alignment and rectangular outline of the eventual Duncan Dock.
 The Railway Authorities required more land for a modern and larger passenger

terminal and a new goods yard. As had always been the case since 1860,

sufficient space could only be found through reclamation of land from the bay.
This foreshadowed the northward shift of the new railway station onto land

formerly occupied by goods yards, positioning of the new goods terminal farther

east at Culemborg, and the re-opening of Strand Street past the Castle as a new
traffic exit to the suburbs.

 The Council anticipated continuing expansion of offices and shops, and
concomitant increases in car and truck traffic into the city. When it considered the

space required to accommodate new buildings and to provide the bigger roads
needed to unblock the traffic bottlenecks it reached one conclusion: new land

would have to be created and the only means was through reclamation from the

bay.

Foreshore reclamation, a process that had been going on intermittently at various places

along the shoreline for over 250 years, therefore solved the triangular wrangle.

What was intended now, in the late 1930s, had been foreshadowed in the 1903 plan, a
modified version of which had been under consideration since 1934, and the Report

setting it out had been tabled in Parliament in April 1937. Tenders were invited and the
Hollandse Aanneming Maatskappy was awarded the contract in December 1937. This

sealed the fate of the Pier which would have been, had it not been demolished, marooned