GREAT ENGINEERING FEAT

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 190, 14 May 1928, Page 8

GREAT ENGINEERING FEAT

TRAFFIC TUNNEL UNDER THE MERSEY THE LAST BARRIER Dominion Special Service. London, May 5. Deep down under the centre of the Diver Mersey the civic leaders of Liverpool and Birkenhead assembled for the historic ceremony of breaking through the thin wall of rock that divided the Liverpool and Birkenhead borings in the great new £5,000,000 traffic tunnel under the Mersey. Armed with a little pick, Sir Archibald Salvidge, who pioneered the scheme, broke through the four-inch lock wall and cleared an opening, through which the lady Lord Mayor of Liverpool and the. Mayor of Birkenhead signified the new link forged between the riverside neighbours with civic handshakes. Powerful arc lamps, giving a combined illumination equivalent to 159,000 candle power, had been installed, and over half a mile of 2-J--inch electric cable had been laid through the tunnel borings to convey the current to illuminate the scene. The Liverpool and Birkenhead parties assembled at the shaft heads on the respective sides of the Mersey, and each member was provided with trench waders, sou’-westers, waterproof coats, a fireman’s neck scarf, and a rope belt to protect them from the downpour of water percolating through the roof of the tunnel. They were conveyed half a mile through the tunnel bearings to the rock face in specially-constructed miniature electric trams, in an atmosphere charged with the din of the compressed air drills, the hiss of compressed air, the roar of the water rushing along the drainage channels, and the dull rolling of the gelignite explosions in the upper tunnel headings, where the work was not so far advanced. When the partition of rock, which was so thin that the workers on both sides could carry on shouted conversations with each other, had been demolished, the Liverpool party traversed the entire length of the Birkenhead inspect the section of the full-sized tunnel, 44ft. in diameter, and equivalent to the width of Dale Street, Liverpool, which has been completed for experimental purposes. The Birkenhead representatives on the other hand proceeded through to the Liverpool shaft. The work, will be completed in two years’ time.