NEW BELGIAN PORT

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 30

NEW BELGIAN PORT

BRUSSELS, July 23. King Leopold has opened the new port j of Zeebrugge, at the terminus of the ' Bruges ship canal. HazelFs Annual for 1907 contains the following particulars regarding the Bruges ship canal : —This canal end the new port at Bruges form two sections of a scheme an important feature in which is still incomplete. This will be represented by the port of call at Zeebrugfge, a point on the Belgian coast north of Ostend and Blanken- . tierge. Here is being constructed a combined pier and breakwater, having a total length of about 2700 yards, but so curved that the extremity will be parallel with the ' coast and 930 yards distant from it. The , mam idea is that transatlantic and other steamers will call here for expre£6 or perishi able cargo or for passengers, when they find it practicable to do so, in preference to steaming 60 miles up the Scheldt to AntI werp. Of quay space about 27 acres will i be available. Admission to the new ship canal is through an outer basin, a lock, and an inner basin, which are ail protected by the pier; and the ship canal runs in a ■ perfectly straight line for a distance of j about seven and a-half mile= to the new ■ Jocks and warehouses at Bruges. It has a depth of 26ft of water throughout, and a width on the water-level of 230 ft, sufficient to* allow of two ordinary cargo boats pass1 ing one another. The total cost of the

works is estimated at £2,200,000. Messrs Coiseau and Cousin are the contractors, the Compagnie dcs Installations Maritimes de Bruges are to hold the concession for 75 years, and the work is being done under Government supervision. The .canal was informally inaugurated on May 29, 1905, by the Continental fleet ol" the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway running from Goole and Hull. Duriogr the summer of 1906 the route proved so successful that a bi-weekly service was maintained to the end of September. After that date a weekly service between Hull and Antwerp, calling at Zeebrugge, was continued.