Lismore Northern Star (Queensland) 5th October 1921
From the Kearney Files
Bridge and Tunnel Schemes
For many years past a Sydney Harbour bridge to connect the North Shore with the city and southern suburbs has been a live question in New South Wales. Plans have been prepared for the construction of the bridge at an estimated cost of between £6,000,000 and £8,000,000, and tenders, it is stated, are shortly to be called for various sections of the work.
An alternative scheme for linking up the north north with the city is now being discussed in Sydney. Mr. H. W., Booth the representative of Mr. E. W. Chalmers Kearney, inventor of the Kearney High-Speed railway system, England, last week stated that Mr. Kearney, who was prepared to construct a tube from Circular Quay to Milson's Point in one year, at a cost of £750,000, equipped with carriages ready for use, does not recommend passengers and vehicular in the one tunnel, but has a scheme to deal with vehicular traffic in a separate tunnel. The cost of the tubes would not exceed £2,500,000, and both could be arranged to built simultaneously and be completed together, and save nine years in time and £6,000,000 in cost of construction as compared with a bridge, and provide every facility claimed with a bridge. The annual interest on the cost of the completed bridge would, as already pointed out ,be £510,000, whereas on the completed and equipped tubes it would only be £150,000, a saving of £360,000 per annum.
Mr. Booth added that in 1909 a board of Australian experts -- Messrs, Deane, Curnot and Oliver -- recommended, after almost exhaustive inquiry, a similar steel tube, as against a bridge. Mr. Kearney is recognised as one of the world's greatest experts in tube construction, and has been connected with every tube built in London in recent years. He is Australian born, and is probably the only engineer in the world who had confined his energies for a number of years exclusively to the solution of the rapid transit problem. He has made himself thourghly familiar with the principal systems of London, New York, Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Glasgow, ,Manchester and Toronto.
In 1914 he secured the adoption of his high-speed railway and gradient system for the proposed railway between Venice and Lido. His plans in this respect showed a saving of £300,000 on the next lowest tender. Mr. Kearney has secured the concession for the Nice and Monte Carlo electric railway, on account of the enormous saving effected on general plans. His figures were confirmed by M. Albanese, the well - known French engineer. His system of railway tube has already been adopted between the Strand and Crystal Palace in London. After exhaustive and critical examination of independent engineers, Mr. Kearney has been considering the Harbour tunnel for ten years and was about to offer this completed scheme when the war intervened. He is prepared to enter into a bond to complete at the cost and within the time named and will either construct for the Government or as a commercial enterprise. Passengers will be taken on at the street level at Circular Quay and landed in the street above the steep grade at Milson's Point, a distinct advantage for Kirribilli traffic. There is to be no interference with navigation or dredging as the tunnel will be 100ft, below low - water mark. Mr. Kearney had devised a system which does away with the costly and cumbersome lifts so inseparable from London tubes. He can negotiate grades up to 1 in 7 (1 in 10 is now being done in a London tube) with ease and safety. His cars come to the surface by steep grades and get down again does away with the necessity for costly surface resumptions. His system has been approved by all the highest authorities. Including Mr. J. Davis late under - Secretary for Public Works and consulting engineer in London to the New South Wales Government. Approval of Mr. Kearney's scheme would, it is pointed out, mean the immediate employment of a large number of miners in providing the raw material (iron) and a small army of workmen at foundries and in addition to the large number of skilled and unskilled workmen required for the tunnel. If the Government is unable to finance the scheme, Mr. Kearney is in a position to form an Australian private company for the purpose of dealing with the matter on commercial lines. It is held that the adoption of the Kearney system of single rails top and bottom cannot prejudice the running of through main line trains composed of ordinary rolling stock. A saving of 50 per cent per annum would be effected, said Mr.Booth, on the upkeep of a tunnel as compared with a bridge. Mr. Kearney has all the working models on a large scale and is prepared to bring them to Sydney if the Government will provide £2,000 and for that he wil not only bring the models but will place himself for one or two months without further charge at their disposal and give all details and illustrations and even in the event of the Government putting in a city tunnel he as an expert, would save thousands of pounds. Mr. Kearney is ready to start from London by the first boat on receipt of a cable that the £2,000 is granted.
The following are set out as some of the advantages of a tunnel over a bridge :- (1) The raw material will be mined and manufactured in Australia; (2) with the exception of a few necessary experts, all work and supervision will be done with local labour; (3) the Government will have this most necessary work carried out in a year from date of commencement at a guaranteed cost, which cannot be exceeded, and without the necessity of financing it if they do desire.
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