NEW THAMES TUNNEL

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 69, 23 March 1938, Page 9

NEW THAMES TUNNEL

KENT-ESSEX CONNECTION

A FIVE-YEAR JOB

(From "Tl»« Post's" Representative.) LONDON, March 2.

; Good progress is being made in th« construction of the Dartford-Purfleet tunnel under the Thames, the most ambitious undertaking of this kind since the 'RotherHithe tunnel was built thirty years ago. It is the first Thames tun* nel to be sponsored by the Government, which is providing; £3,000,000 of the total cost of' £3,500,000,, the balance being equally divided...between the Essex.and Kent County Councils. When completed, in 1942,' it will join the- greatest/ by-pass. scheme."aver undertakenin England. :i .;",-, ■..,;■,

For more than a year men have toiled to'sink the two'working shafts on each side of the river,', and from the bottom of these passages have faeen driven, ring by ring under compressed air, and shield chambers constructed, inside which the shields for driving the pilot tunnel are being erected.

The pilot tunnel will pass about 92 feet under the Thames high-water mark, and with the various passages the tunnel will have a complete-length of approximately 3300 ft.

■ The completed tunnel will have an internal diameter of 28ft. and will allow the construction of a 20ft wide roadway between the kerbs. In addition there will be . two narlbw footpaths on each side of the roadway for patroV purposes. From portal to portal the length of the tunnel will be approximately one mile.

At the moment 180 men—"Cockney miners," as they are known —are at work on the pilot tunnel. On their three eight-hour shifts they .pa* through giant air locks into litts which take them to the bottom of. the shafts.

The joint engineers Tor the work are Messrs. Coode, Wilson, Mitchell, and Vaughan-Lec and Messrs. Mntt, Hay. and Anderson, the builders of ihc'jMurscy tunnel. The latter are responsible for the actual exeeuton o; I'ia works. The contract now in hand lir the shafts and pilot tunnel is being carried out by Messrs. Charles Brand and Son, Limited. . • .