VAST UNDERTAKING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22713, 28 October 1935, Page 14

VAST UNDERTAKING

NEW HARBOUR TUNNEL THE LINKING OF TWO SEAS MARSEILLES’ PLANS The traveller who to-day enters the harbour of Marseilles by daylight will see immense new harbour works in progress. These stretch as far as the Rove Tunnel, which is the widest in the world (writes B. S. Townroe in the Dally Telegraph). Out of sight beyond the tunnel and behind the hills to the north-west is being constructed a huge inland harbour. The tunnel is a link between the ancient port, the new port, and the Rhone Canal —and so to Central France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and on to the North Sea. The French engineers have already erected breakwaters, composed of reinforced concrete blocks, each weighing 450 tons, so as to protect shipping against the storms of the Mediterranean. They have driven a tunnel through four miles of rock, and they are transforming marshland into sites suitable for factories over an area equal to that of Maiseilles itself. All these works are proof of the energy and enterprise of modern France. The leaders in this vast engineering project which the Chamber of Commerce at Marseilles initiated in the blackest year of the war sec a vision of Marseilles \ becoming a river port and increasing its traffic as the chief seaport of France. Its present position on the belt of the world which links up the canals of Suez and Paiiama, at the head of direct water communication, is a natural asset, which has been steadily developed. RIVALRY WITH GENOA. As this summer I steamed round the harbour, leaving behind the old port, M. Brenier, the honorary directorgeneral of the Marseilles Chamber of Commerce, told me of the rivalry between Marseilles and Genoa, and how the French port is increasing ’ its traffic. Both are in the Mediterranean, close to the route from the East to South “America. La,,st year there were 644,300 passengers passing in and out of Marseilles, as compared with 143,570 in Genoa, and nearly twice as many ships, and I.OOO'OOO tons in goods (embarked and disembarked). Marseilles aims, however, at becoming the middleman for one-tenth of the world’s population. The latest figures show that, in spite of the crisis of last year, the traffic of the harbour is steadily expanding. The net ship tonnage has increased from 22.000. tons in 1913 to over 33,000,000 tons at present. British shipping still occupies first place, and the tonnage entering and leaving the port under British flags last year amounted to nearly 7,000,0000 tons. The figures, however, show a decrease in the goods traffic (in and out) of about 1.000. tons compared with the prewar figures, owing to the world crisis. The decrease applies specially to British coal, which explains why our coal mines have been so hard hit. In 1913 the’ import of British coal to Marseilles was 1,797,800 tons; reduced in 1933 to 968,400 tons, and in 1934 to 866,400. The reduction is said to be due almost exclusively to the substitution of fuel oil for coal. GIANT BLOCKS. As our tender picked its course from one basin to another the difficulties which the French have had to overcome became apparent. It must be a ticklish and slow business for a large ship coming in from the open sea to thread its way to its berth, and yet breakwaters were essential in order to provide a safe anchorage in this exposed position. The original assets of the harbour were the (ieep water, 105 feet close to the shore, and the comparative absence of tides, but the bigger the ships the more extensive the protection necessary The new breakwater, for example, guarding the “ Bassin Mirabcau ” is built of blocks of concrete. I watched these being cast • in steel moulds and saw one, the size of a small bungalow, being cautiously lowered by a giant crane into the water, where it was guided into its final position by divers. Similar gigantic blocks are now being used to build the Pbaro Basin, jast outside the old port, where in time there, will be a new deep-water harbour large enough for ships with a maximum draught of over 40 feet. The beginnings of a new breakwater a mile and a-half long can now be sect). These two harbour extensions will cost, according to estimates, over £12,000,000. Not satisfied, however, with these additions along the shore, even . more ambitious plans are being carried out behind the bills not far from the main line to Paris on an inland lake, the Etang de Berre. Napoleon was one of the first who had the vision to see that this might become one of th" finest inland harbours in the world, but it has taken over 100 years to bring his conception within the realms of practical politics. The area is nearly 60 square miles or about the same size as the city of Leeds. Most of the lake has a natural depth of between 26 and 30 feet, thus providing good anchorage for sea-going ships up to 12,000 tons, while there is unlimited space for docks and warehouses. It is now linked to the Mediterranean by the Rove Tunnel, an engineering achievement of which little has been heard in this country. This is a tunnel over four miles long, 49 feet high and 72 feet wide. It took 15 years to build. It was started in 1911 and work continued in 1914, war or no war. At the very moment when the Germans were fighting at Verdun the two ends of the tunnel met. Resolutely the leaders of the enterprise, the Chamber of Commerce and its

president, M. Artaud, and the official engineers of the Pontb et Chaussees (Public Works) pressed on, until the work was completed in 1926. TO THE INTERIOR. Barges to-day of 600 tons carry cargoes from the Mediterranean through the tunnel to the inland sea, and up canals to the interior of France and thence to Central and Northern Europe. Those who pass through the tunnel come out into a strange corner of the world, leaving behind the beauty of the blue sea and finding the scars of modern industrialism. At the south-western corner are immense petrol refining plants, tanks like gasometers, smoking chim- , neys, pipe lines protruding from the rock, black tankers moored at the piers, and then here and there, surrounded by ■ trees and laid out with playing and gardens, pleasant villages where the % workmen dwell. From the economic point of view r , the saving in the carriage of this petrol from the East across Europe instead of around Spain and Portugal, must be considerable. On the south-east of the lake is Marignane, an aeroplane and hydroplane • port. This serves 12 regular air lines, and in 1933 was visited by 4629 machines and several thousands of passengers. The immensity of the developments in this outer region carried out by the. Chamber of Commerce of Marseilles, with the help of the State, has to be seen to be believed. The methods of finance and control are too complicated to be described in a brief article. The indomitable spirit of man conquering the obstacles of Nature, and converting an exposed shore and a desolate lake into a chain of deep-water harbours, equipped . with every device of modern engineering, must impress the visitor. As he nears the Rove Tunnel, and looks through the. entrance towards the tiny patch of open sky, seen over four miles away as through a telescope, he realises the prescience of the Frenchmen responsible for this industrial activity, who are looking ahead to A.D. 2000. By that time they hope that the quickest route between the North Sea and the Scandinavian countries, and the Mediterranean and the East, will be across France.