but it was found that material for these buildings was quite difficult to obtain
         in quantity and that the saving in standard building materials did not
         compensate for the added time and effort necessary to procure native
         materials. Cement, nails, screening, celoglass and roofing paper were
         usually available. During the latter part of the regiments stay on the island
         plywood and composition board were also available in good quantity.
         
              Design work was conducted by both the engineer section of the
         Service Command and the engineer section of the regiment, the majority of
         the work being done within the regiment. At one time both battalions were
         operating a design section in addition to the regimental design section. The
         available equipment and the available material limited the design of both
         building construction and road and bridge construction. In some cases it
         was necessary to redesign projects because certain materials were not
         available. In general all building design followed the typical Theater of
         Operation drawings supplied by the Chief of Engineers. In road design it was
         necessary to design in such a way that earth moving was held to a minimum
         because of the lack of suitable earth moving equipment. The size and
         strength of the steel shapes, which could be found on the island, governed
         bridge design. It is interesting to note that these steel shapes were
         reparation payments to France by Germany after the last War. All structures
         had to be designed to withstand high winds inasmuch as New Caledonia is in
         the hurricane belt. Drainage structures had to have sufficient capacity to
         care for the flash floods which occurred during the rainy season. From the
         photographs it can be seen that there was little vegetation to catch the
         rainfall and as a result dry creek beds were transformed into swollen streams
         within a matter of hours after a heavy rain; therefore, the necessity for
         elaborate drainage systems.