SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19176, 6 December 1927, Page 3

SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE.

SPEEDING UP . CONSTRUCTION. (FROM OUR OWH CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY. November 24. The appauing ferry disaster, which the public cannot readily efface from memory, has stirred up the question of speeding up the work of constructing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in the interests of safety, and in order to reduce the ever-growing traffic by water. Some of the ferries on the harbour carry 2000 and more passengers, many of whom, at the peak hours, have to stand, just as they do on the trams. If one of these massive ferries met with disaster, the loss of life in the little Greycliffe, one of the smallest ferries in commission before it sank with such dramatic suddenness, would be but a mere circumstance compared with it. Obviously, the firm which is building the bridge is not likely to speed up the work if, in that process, it has to work the whole round of the clock, at its own expense, on the bridge itself, in the workshops, and wherever the raw materials are being fabricated or quarried. As things are, the construction of the bridge is certainly, and no doubt necessarily, a slow job. The case for the speeding-up of this vast work is not without logical economic reasons. There is, for example, the capital involved in plant lying idle for the greater part of the 24 hours. Again, there is the delay in crossing the harbour by the vehicle ferries or punts, especially at the peak hours. It takes a motor vehicle about hull" an hour ordinarily, including waiting time, to get from one side of the harbour to the other. During the busy hours, the delay is much longer, especially if one happens to be at the end of the queue.