Channel Tunnel First Planned 100 Years Ago

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28150, 13 December 1956, Page 10

Channel Tunnel First Planned 100 Years Ago

(From a Reuter Correspondent)

Few persons realise that work was actually started many years ago on the construction of an undersea tunnel to link Britain and France. In fact, if you go to Dover today, you will find the beginning of an experimental tunnel which stretches out under the Channel for more than a mile. More than a century ago, the French mining engineer Mathieu persuaded Napoleon to give his support to a plan for driving a tunnel beneath the Dover Straits. He suggested that the project would require two tunnels, one above the other, the lower to be used solely for drainage purposes. Later, there were others who saw in the scheme tremendous possibilities, and a generation later, M. J. A. Thome de Gamond devoted many years to the study of possibilities by which the idea could be realised. He made two suggestions. One was to establish floating bridges, and the other was to drive tunnels between masonry structures, which were to be erected on the Varne bank and off the English and French coasts. Such a plan, estimated to cost about £35,000,000 was rejected on the ffround that it would be far too expensive. Determined to succeed, de Gamond submitted another scheme 20 years later, and this won the interest of the French Emperor as well as the support of the Prince Consort. The proposal was regarded as practical because it dealt with every conceivable technical difficulty. British engineers became attracted by the idea, and William Lowe, a mining engineer, tried to enlist support for a tunnel between St. Margaret’s Bay and Sangatte, four miles west of Calais. Two Tunnels One of the major difficulties was the problem of ventilation. Earlier schemes had met the need for air circulation by including shafts which would rise above sea level. Lowe suggested that ventilation should be tackled in a different manner. He proposed to drive two tunnels which would give the necessary air circulation and ventilate each other.

In the end Lowe and de Gamond joined forces, and the whole question was investigated by an international committee. Further progress, however, became impossible when war broke out between France and Germany.

The war over, the experts disagreed on a major issue. One side maintained that two single line tunnels were necessary, whilst the other side contended that one double-track tunnel was all that was needed. The result of the disagreement was the emergence of two rival undertakings pledged to carry out the scheme favoured by each party. Many other ideas and proposals were made, but still nothing was done to build the tunnel. In 1875, however, a British company was given the authority to begin trial borings. Unfortunately, the company languished for want of capital, and its powers lapsed. Then the South-eastern Railway

stepped in and obtained permission to conduct experimental work to further the scheme. The result was the es- , tablishment of the Submarine Contin-. ental Railway Company, which de-1 cided to build two single line tunnels from Dover at a cost of £3,000,000. The company carried drift ways as far as 2000 yards under the sea from a shaft sunk near the Shakespeare Cliff at Dover. At this point Parliament ordered the work to be abandoned. That mile and a bit is all the engineer has to show for more than a century of planning. £lOO Million Today There is no doubt that the carrying out of the scheme will meet with many serious difficulties, and perhaps the greatest enemy will prove to be water. But this can be kept at bay by compressed air or by chemical consolidation of the strata. Other methods can also be employed to defeat this enemy, and it is safe to say that there is practically no type of ground which, the modern tunneller cannot deal wjth successfully. ‘ Air and atomic warfare have nowj discounted all military objections to j the tunnel, and as we are now so: closely linked with France, economic- ’ ally and politically, the tunnel mighl ■ do much to knit the two countries in ! even closer unity and friendship. The tunnel has enormous commercial possibilities also, which must not be overlooked. All shades of opinion have been expressed in the House of Commons, and it may well be that eventually the scheme will become a reality, in spite of the fact that its construction is now estimated to cost as much as' £100.000.000. This seems a lot of money, particu- • larly at a time when the country is fighting for its economic future. But' such a link with the Continent might l prove an economic life-line well worth 1 the original outlay. In any.case, a Channel tunnel, uniting more closely the peoples of Britain and the Continent, is a proposal which today deserves most careful consideration.