SYDNEY'S BIG BRIDGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19809, 2 December 1927, Page 14

SYDNEY'S BIG BRIDGE.

SPEEDING-UP SUGGESTED. INTERESTS OF SAFETY. [FROM our own CORRESPONDENT, j SYDNEY, Nov. 24. The appalling ferry disaster, which the public cannot readily efface from memory, has stirred up the question of speeding up the work of constructing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in the interests of safety, and in order to reduce the ever-growing traffic by water. Some o f the ferries ori the harbour cairy 2000 ajpd more passengers, many of whom, at the peak hours, have to stand, just as they do oi> the trams. If one of these massive ferries met with disaster, the loss of life in the little Greycliffo. one ot the smaller ferries in commission before it sank with such dramatic suddenness, would bo but a mere circumstance compared with it Obviously, the firm which is building the bridge is not likely to speed up the work if, in that process, it has to work the whole round of the clock, at its own expense, on the bridge itself, in the workshops, and wherever the raw materials are being fabricated or quarried. As things are, the construction of the bridge is certainly, and no doubt necessarily, a slow job. The case for the speeding-up of this vast work is not without logical economic reasons There is, for example, the capital involved in plant lying idle for the greater part of the 24 hours. Again, there is the delay in crossing the harbour by the vehicle ferries or punts, especially at the peak hours. It takes a motor vehicle about half an hour ordinarily, including waiting time, to get from one side of the harbour to the other. During the busy hours the delatf is much longer, especially if one happens to be at the end of the queue.