ENGLISH CHANNEL TUNNEL.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1924, Page 4

ENGLISH CHANNEL TUNNEL.

P.'iACTICA Ml MTV (lE WORK. f~'ixtv years ago there were three

■'.real projects itmlor di-citssioii for the niiprovinieiil of cnniiiiiiiiications on the surface of this world, The Suo/t Canal, the l’auama Canal, and the CTaiinel tiinneil. Tiie Suez Canal amt tile Panama 1 anal have been built, but tile Channel tumid remains to he com slntctcd. writes Sir Arthur Fell, chairimiii of the Mouse of (ominous Ccmtiiittee on the Channel Tunnel, in tht ’■.Morning Post.’’ An estimate of the cast of the tunnel is C2:>,()ll0,0(l0, atul the revenue based on the I!l22 traflie receipts would wmk out at

a!i,iiit CI.bCO.HUO a year, or just over ■') per (i at on the cost. One of the principal tourist agents thinks (lie present passenger trallii- may increase 10 times. The tunnel will lie constructed one-hall with English capital and oiich.all French, and will l,e jointly owned and worked. ’I he mouths of the tunnel on both sides cl the ( liannel will lie some miles Inn k Irom the coast to enable the depth beneath the sea to lie reached li.vi easy gradients. This will increase the length of the tunnel to about :t:l miles. I of which 2-1 will he tinder the sen. No; stte!) engineering work has yet been! accomplished. The longe-l tunnel is 1 that of 12 miles under the Simplon, and the longest under water is the •Severn tunnel of over lour miles. Fortunately the engineers, after veers of study and preliminary soundings and barings, have found that a lied of chalk marl lies beneath the chalk which forms the dill's on both sides of the straits, and this heil extends rigid across. It is roughly (jdft in thickness, and i- of such a miLure as to lie virtually impervious to the percolation of I water, and forms a most admirable material for tunnel driving. The tunnel will consist of two tubes of about -tot diameter, and driven about (!tl|’t apart, hut before these two lubes are begun a pilot heading or tube of about 12l't diameter will he driven. This test tube will prove the ground amlj facilitate tile driving of the two work-

ing tunnels

Fro nth ami English engineers art agreed on the practicahilitv of the work. The te.-t tunnel can he coin plot«'il in about throe years, anil the working tunnels in three years mere, so that Continental expresses to ttn-i various capitals of Europe tail he run-' niug trout l.omlen in about six years. I li is diflieult to realise what this will 1 mean to Hie passengers anil goocltrallii- in the Continent. The labour re-i «"!t!i l tor the actual tunnel construe-j tion would be about ilO.fiftf) nien fot I six year-, but subsidiary works will. absorb large numhors of nuenipluyeil. j It is probable that the success of the tunnel will he so great that other! Channel tunnels will lollow. and pns- I si lily a motor road or roads to France J as well. The military question is no longer raised, for no one would he rash , enough to say on what element or hv what forces the next war may he i waged. i