A BOLD ENGINEERING ATTEMPT

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7550, 25 September 1886, Page 4

A BOLD ENGINEERING ATTEMPT

, A very bold attempt is to be made (says nh English contemporary) to connect Prince Edward's Tsland and the mainland of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia by means of a cast-iron tunnel. The necessity has arisen thus— Northumberland Channel, which separates the mainland and Prince Edward's Island, nnd is six or seven nrilea across at its narrowest part, is blocked during a large part of the year with Arctic ice. When the island entored the Canadian Confederation it was agreed in orid of the articles tlmt. communication should be kept up all the year round. Steamers were built, at a great cost, of a type which it was thought would be able to effect the passage. The result, has been a complete failure, and the inhabitants of the island, numbering 125,000, are cut off from communication with the ■world during several months of the year. A tunnel has been resolved upon. It is not to be carried \mder the bed of ■ the channel, but it is to be laid upon it. Surveys of the channel show that in several places the bottom of the channel is either flat or ofa nearly uniform slope, which will allow a cast iron tnbe to be laid. This tube will start from the end of piers to be built on each side of the channel. It is to be 18/fc in cliiimefcer, and in to be constructed of chilled white cast iron, made by a patent process, which enables the metal to resist the decomposing and corrosive action of sea water. The metal will be 4ih or more thick, and tiie bottom of the channel varies in depth* from lOJft on the New Brunswick side to 80ft in the middle of the Straits. The total cost is estimated at £1,000,000. Where the channel is deep enough the tubs will simply be laid on its floor, 1 but where it is very shallow it will be sunk in a depression dredged out for the purpose., It is a daring enterprise, hut there is no reason why it should not prove a complete success. The British nation should feel a pride that those who live in its dependencies have sufficient initiation and resource to cone with the new difficulties which face tliem in. the very different conditions under which they live.