WELLAND SHIP CANAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20491, 17 February 1930, Page 11

WELLAND SHIP CANAL.

N.I AG ARA EENI NSUIi« &UTV

WORK NEARLY

I. <COST OVER £24,000,000, r !

[from our own correspondent.! VANCOUVER, Jan. 8. It is expected that on Dominion Day, July 1, the Wellarid Ship Canal, the fourth to be built across the Niagara Peninsilla, to circumvent one of the world's greatest cataracts, will be opened for traffic. Lock 8, at the Erie end of the canal, the longest canal lock in ths world, was opened to navigation on September 16 last. Next spring Locks 1, 2 and 3, at the Lalce Ontario end, will be ready for use. On July 1 the use of the three great twin flight locks will complete the abandonment of the old canal. Throughout the work on the new one there has been a gradual change from the old to the new; construction has had to be carried on with precautions against interference with the passage of ships.

It is estimated that the total cost of the Welland Canal will be slightly over £24,000,030, ■of which £22,160,000 was spent up to the end of the year. It will have eight locks, less than one-third the number of the old canal. The usable length of the locks will be 820 ft., the depth of water on the sills 30ft., and the lift of the locks ~46£ft., the height of the lower mitre gates 82ft. Navigable water is 25ft. deep, capable' of being increased to 30ft. The estimated total time of passage through the canal is eight hours, compared with 26 hours by the old canal. The actual length of the new canal is 25 miles. '

There are two or three spectacular features in the new canal. One is the three giant twin-flight locks at the escarpment, with a total lift of 139 ft. ■ They are similar to the Gatun locks, in the Panama Canal, which, though of somewhat larger dimensions, have only an aggregate lift of 85ft. Another is the guard lock near the Erie end, built to keep the summit tevel on the new canal at. a regulated level of 569 ft.

Through this guard lock ships will be passed from the constantly fluctuating level of Lake Erie to the regulated summit level. This will, the engineers say, effect a vast improvement in navigation in the old canal summit level, which is subject to all the fluctuations of Lake Erie. The railway and highway bridges across the canal will be completed in the spring.