THROUGH THE ALPS

Evening Star, Issue 20119, 8 March 1929, Page 7

THROUGH THE ALPS

NEW FRANCO-ITALIAN LINE After _ nineteen years of combined churls Irauce and Italy have completed a masterpiece of railway construction consisting of a forly-niilc line pushed through one of flic wildest portions of the Alps, and providing a ehort cut ftoiii Nice to the Italian town of Cuneo. Mere than one-thml of the lino consists of tunnels bored through .solid reck. There are forty-five of these, two of them being more than three miles ni length, while thirty-nine viaducts, togetiier with numerous small bridges, make up two or more miles of tho run. Construction of the Nice-Cuneo line, which will soon be supplemented by a line from Cuneo to Vintimiile, presented the greatest difficulties to tho engineering experts employed by the two countries. The loose surface of the stony cliffs at numerous points required the building of elaborate construction works in order to prevent landslides. Between the towns of Sospel and Bred the water seeping through the rock was so heavily charged' with sulphate of soda that it puffed up the cement to half again its original volume, and necessitated the manufacture of a special kind of cement. The new route is expected to offer an unusual attraction for tourists, for its forty miles of track run through one of tho most picturesque sections of the Alps. Following the valley of Pailion de L’Escareino and joining the Sainlo Tiled© Liver, it comes to the little eleventh century village of Pailion, where a Latin inscription is still preserved over every doorway, then continues over a series of lofty trestles through areas previously unknown to travellers.

Construction of tbe line was first proposed by Italy in 1851, but it was opposed by France until March 21, 1906, when an international agreement vrar, reached. The first work started on January 26, 1910.