TO DEEPEN THE THAMES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 6, 8 January 1908, Page 5

TO DEEPEN THE THAMES.

IMPORTANT SCHEME PROPOSED

£650,000 TO BE RAISED

LONDON, Nov. 5. The Thames Conservancy resolved yesterday to raise a further sum of £25,000 under the Act of 1905 authorising the Board to expend £400,000 upon deepening the channel of the river between the Nore and Gravesend. Very soon the largest ships built will be able to come up to the Tilbury Docks at any time, without regard to the tide.

It will be remembered that the work which the Conservators have set themselves is to deepen the twenty-one miles channel between Gravesend and the Nore from its average of 26ft to an average of 30ft over all its thousand feet of width. The bucket dredger, the most powerful ever seen on the Thames, has been at work for about two years on the six miles long shoal of "hard ballast" extending down the Lower Hope Reach. The suction dredger, which is to be launched shortly, will have a capacity of 4000 tons, will fill herself in fifty minutes, and will go at ten knots an hour. This great dredger will work over the Yantlet shoal, off Southend, which is about five miles long, and consists mostly of silt. It is estimated that there are 6,000,000 tons of material here to be removed.

But the Thames Conservators had a, new project before them of the first importance. They discussed the advisability of giving notice of a Bill to provide funds for the deepening and improvement of the river between Gravesend and London Bridge., and

' ultimately decided to promote a-BUI. By the time the measure is passed the, bucket dredger, which is now, in the ;■ Lower Hope Reach, will be available for the upper portion .of the river- - The suction dredger will remain over the Yantl4t shoal untiM9l2. * : The Act of 1905 doubled the tonnage dues for three years in order to defras part of the cost of the Nore-Gravesena deepening. It is.proposed by the new Bill to.extend the increase of the tonnage dues for an additional ten years, thus'providing £650,000. Both the scheme which is now in progress and the contemplated im- | provemerits up to London Bridge are sin accordance with the recommenda- ! tions of the Port of London Royal Commission* The widening, proposed in the higher reaches or the. river. would have the effect of drawing away from the.foreshores the accumulations of mud,1 and this, ia view of the increasing size, of vessels trading to the' up-river wharves, would be of great benefit to'tJhe trafficI.'< Basins,, or laybyes, Wher£■ deeperaugTit Vessels might take refuge and thereby frequently save a tide, will also be provided for in the next Bill. v