THE WELLAND CANAL

Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1930, Page 2

THE WELLAND CANAL

COMPLETION THIS YEAR

VANCOUVER, Jan. 8

It is expected -that on Dominion Day, July Ist. tlie Welland Ship Canal, the fourth to be built across the Niagara Peninsula, to circumvent one of/the world’s greatest cataracts, will be opened for traffic. On September 16th. last. Lock 8. at the Erie end of the canal, the longest canal lock in the world, was opened to navigation. Next spring, Locks I, 2 and 3, at the Lake Ontario end, will he ready for use. On July Ist. the use of the three great twin flight locks will complete the abandonment of the old canal. Throughout the work on the new one, there has been a gradual change from the old to the new; construction has had to be carried on with precautions against interference with the passage of ships.

It is estimated that the total cost of the Welland Canal will he slightly over £24,000,000, of which £22,160,000 was spent up to the end of the year. It will have eight locks, .less than onethird the number of the old canal. The usable length of the locks will be 820 feet and the lift of the locks 46-j- feet, the height of the lower mitre gates 82 feet. Navigable water is 25 feet deep, capable of being increased to 30 feet. Tlie estimated total time of passage through the canal is eight' hours, compared with 26 hours by the old canal. The actual length of the new canal is 25 miles.

There are two or three spectacular features in the new canal. One is the three giant twin-flight locks at the escarpment, with a total lilt of 139 feet. They are similar to the Gatlin locks in the Panama Canal, which, though of somewhat larger dimensions, have only an aggregate lift of 85ft. Another is the guard lock near the Erie end, built to keep tlie summit level on the new canal at a regulated level of 569 feet. Through this guard lock ships will he passed from the constantly fluctuating level of Lake Erie to the regulated summit level. This will, the engineers say. effect a vast improvement in navigation in the old canal summit level, which is subject to all the fluctuations of Lake Erie. The railway and highway bridges across the canal will he completed in the spring.