THE CHANNEL TUNNEL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16448, 29 May 1919, Page 7

THE CHANNEL TUNNEL.

DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION

LONDON, March 18. We are to have the Channel tunnel at last. The French have always been in favour of it. What a difference this tunnel would have madp had it been constructed before the war. English commercial and public opinion generally approved of the tunnel from the first* days when Sir Edward Watkin advocated it. The chief obstacle was always to bo found in our Wa t r Office. Military men of tho past generation distrusted France. Till the days ofEdward VII. the British Court and tho tipper military circles were, pro-Ger-man, and military leaders seemed unable to shako off the inborn antipathy of tho military class towards France. Bismark’s policy adroitly kept France under British .suspicion. Thus, until the present war lias shown tho usefulness of a Channel tunnel, there was never any enthusiasm for it in this country. The- events of tho last four years have changed all that, and today it is a- rarity to find anyone who disapproves of the Government’s proposal to join with France in making a tunnel between Dover and Calais. There is much to bo done before that pioposal takes practical shape. But much preliminary work has boon accomplished in anticipation of the certainty that a tunnel would have to bo made seme day. Besides the old Channel. Tunnel Company, which even burrowed for two miles under the sea, and learnt a deal respecting tho nature of tho rock to be pierced, and what were likely to be constructional difficulties, is further a House of Commons committee, under Mr. Arthur Fell l , that has long kept this subject alive before the public. Already there are many known facts of interest inspecting this enterprise. The cost, for instance, is likely to be about twenty millions sterling, or four millions raoro than the pre-war estimate. The boring of the tunnel will bo done by tho use of drilling shields, as in the ease of the London railway tubes. The undersea poidion of the tunnel will be over 22 miles long, and over 150 feet below the bed of the ocean in its deepest part. There will bo nearly eight miles of tunnel under the land before the sea portion is approached In order to'facilitate transit the railway lines will he in parallel galleries "six yards in diameter and 15 yards from each other, but connected at intervals of a hundred yards by transverse passages. There will be a drainage gallery below eaefi tunnel; but little or no moisture is expected, for the whole route is in tho chalk, and the tunnels will be lined with steel, like the London railway tubes. One great difficulty will be to get rid of the excavated soil. Much of this will be used for making cement to bo packed round tho steel lining, and much will be thrown into tho sea. The work will employ up to 8000 men a day. Cutting through the rock will commence simultaneously from the French and English sides. Some engineers prophesy that the boring machines will operate easily, for tho chalk is very soft. This will be a different experience from the same class of work in Switzerland. The steel lining will be fastened in its place with each advance of the borer. It is intended that tho trains shall be drawn by electric locomotives attached to the carriages at tho mouth of the tunnel, and it is estimated that they will complete the crossing in about 40 minutes. Ventilation will be provided by special and very powerful apparatus. Experiments have already been made to reduce the noise and vibration of travelling. It is likely these will bo overcome bp tho use of double windows and rubber padding round the glass. The promoters desire to run trains much farther than Paris. It is intendfed to use through coaches to Berlin, Petrograd—if that place exists after the Bolshevik regime—to Rome, Vienna, and Constantinople. It is hoped also that the making of a tunnel from Constantinople to the Asiatic side, of the waterway will enable the miming of direct trains to Bagdad. If that be attained, the next generation will want to travel by rail all the way to Lidia.