MERSEY TUNNEL

Hokitika Guardian, 10 December 1934, Page 7

MERSEY TUNNEL

TRAFFIC GREATER THAN EXPECTED

LONDON. October 26

Sir Thomas White, chairman of the Mersey Tunnel Cpmmittee, spoke at a luncheon about the present position and possible developments of the great engineering feat. Referring to the finance, he said, the pessimists had been confounded. They banked, he said., on getting £BO,OOO in nine months, but as a matter of fact Oiey had got nearly that sum after three month’s working. It was admitted that curiosity on the part of during the summer had helped the earnings, but since then the decline they had anticipated had not taken pU'cc. He was not, however, living in a fool’s paradise ; they would work to make that a stabilised figure, and even to improve upon it «s time went on.

In three months they had handled 866,000 vehicles and had carried 1,125000 passengers. The ventilation question, which gave cause for so much perturbation at one time, h~d been most successfully solved.

“We on the tunnel rjommittee,” 'added Sir Thomas White, “have nearly finished our work, but the tunnel itself is only j.ust commencing its work. The work of the engineers is not yet completed. We have got all the vast power required not, only for the main tunnel hut to accomplish • the ventilation of the lower half.”

Mr Ole Singstag (consulting engineer of the Holland tunnel, New York) agreed that the Mersey tunnel w a s one of the wonders of the world. They had not only a tunnel, but a great boulevard under the .river’. Even allowing for “curiosity” traffic, he thought it very likely that bv the end of the first year their estimates would he very much exceeded.