The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-07-04 00:00:00

eet ; the embankment

usual calculation, somewhere

about 7,426,000 cubic feet

1, all of which has been derived

Such a mass of consolidated material, it is

obvious, will resist almost any amount of lateral pressure,
and certainly much greater than any to which it is likely

to be subjected; but pressure

A not tl:

e only risk to

be guarded against in such a work, the more dangerous

because more insidious and less perceptible risks, arising
from percolation and filtration, require also to be calculated
and provided against ; and on the excellence of this
provision depends nearly the whole stability of the
structure, and of course the value as well as the
safety of the works. The

most obvious precaution in

regard to this source of danger consists in the construc-
tion of a water-tight barrier, extending throughout
the whole length of the embankment, and reaching from
a foundation perfectly impervious to water, to a height
considerably above the surface-level of the water to be con-
tained in the reservoir. This water-tight barrier is here, and
generally formed of compactly rammed puddle-clay, and
in the case before us it is of great magnitude, and is care-
fully consolidated by ramming. It is in every portion of
its great length carried down two feet into the solid rock,
which in some places is from 57 to 60 feet below the sur-
face of the valley; in other words this puddle-wall is in
some places 117 feet in depth, its base being from 14 to
16 feet wide, and gradually diminishing in thickness till
it reaches the top of the embankment with a thickness of
five feet. This embankment, then, with its puddle-wall,
constitutes the restraining barrier to the mass of pent-up

water; the regulated delivery of which is managed by a
built cylindrical tunnel, six feet in diameter, which passes
through the mound near the bottom of the lake and
towards the eastern end of
.the embankment ; in the mid-
dle of this tunnel is a sluice-valve, by the partial or com-
plete opening of which the flow of water is permitted or
checked. This sluice-valve is reached by a built shaft,
which opens on the upper surface of the embankment.
On the west side of the lake are constructed other sluices
communicating with the waste-wear for running off the
surplus water, and for regulating the supply of compensa-
tion-water to the mills and factories situated below the
water-works. The above description of the Horwich em-
bankment will, in its leading features, apply to the
others, any variation from it consisting more in details
than in general principle.

A large portion of that embankment has been
executed, and its farther progress is being rapidly pro-
ceeded with. It has already reached an altitude of 35
feet, leaving about 22 feet to be yet raised ; this portion, it
Will be obvious from the preceding description, becomes
rapidly narrower as its height increases, and when it is
borne in mind that the great extra depth of the puddle
wall has been overcome, it will be seen that by far the
largest, as well as the most arduous, portion of its con-
struction has been completed, although not more than nine
months have elapsed since operations were commenced on
it. In addition to the formation, however, it requires also
to be faced with shingling, that is, broken stones, for forty-
two feet up its slope on the side next the water.
Immediately to the south of this embankment, but on
a considerably lower level, a large space has been levelled
and divided by a central embankment running north and
south. On the east side of this embankment the space is
subdivided into six large ponds or filtering beds, while the
opposite or west side is divided into two ; these latter
being the equalising or pure-water tanks. These ponds or
tanks are divided from each other by massive embank-
ments similarly constructed to that already described,
though much smaller in dimensions; but each, like it,
being traversed by a puddle-wall along its whole length,
and through its whole depth, reaching down to the rock.
Each filtering bed is 284 feet in length by 84 feet wide
and 12 feet deep. Along the bottom of each of these
filter ponds there are sunk two longtiudinal soughs ter-

minating in a central one and passing by a tunnel and

shuce-valve into the pure-water tank, the soughs being

covered over with strong but not closely jointed

is there is to

broken stones,

two feet in

depth ; at

a bed of

state into the sougl

of filtration, passi

;lis already mentioned, and by them being

delivered into the equalising or pure water tanks through
the tunnels and sluice-valves. The whole of these filter-

ing tanks have been made, and the soughs are all con-
structed, while some portions of the rougher filtering
material are in process of being filled in. The sides of
these six ponds are all to be shingle-covered ; and at their
eastern end, but cut off by an embankment from them, is

a channel for running off waste water, when more is run
off from the reservoir than is requisite for supplying the
filter ponds.

The two pure water tanks measure each about 220 feet
in length by a breadth of about 200 feet. These are to be
paved with thick square-set stones placed on edge, and
firmly cemented in concrete, divided longitudinally into

three floors by stone ridges, which project about

above the general level, a considerable portion of the floor

of one being already laid. From each of these tanks att

nel with a sluice-valve opens into the main-pipe, which
conveys the water to Liverpool, the object of the double
tank and tunnel being to afford means of cleaning or

repairing either of them w

to the consumers

terrupting the supply of

Besides the

tubes comma;

with the main pipes, each of tl

ese tanks is furnished wit

an outlet communicating with the waste-wear, which runs
along their western margin, for the purpose of washing
out and cleaning the tank from time to time, if that be
rendered necessary by any accumulation
which will, however, be very sedulously guarded against
The surface on the top of all these nun
sive embankments is to be carefully finished as gravel

a of impurities,

is and eaten-

walks or drives, and these will furnish charming places of

recreation for the neighbouring villagers and their visi-
tors. The works are making rapid progress under the
spirited exertions of the contractors, whose skill, inge-

nuity, and indomitable perseverance in the face (
ous obstacles and great difficulties exceed all praise. T
gentlemen are Messrs. Scott and Nowell, contractors for
the Rivington reservoir, and for the filter ponds and pure
water tanks ; Messrs. Miller and Lawton, contractors for
the Anglezark reservoir, and its concomitant works ; Mr.
Isherwood, contractor for the Roddlesworth reservoir, and
its subservient operations, All of these are being pushed
on with great alacrity under the superintendence of Mr.
Statham, the able assistant to Mr. Hawkesley, the engi-
neer, and little doubt is entertained by any of the parties
concerned, that the reservoirs, filtering apparatus, and
pure water tanks, will be ready for receiving water as soon
as the pipes can be laid between the latter and the town
of Liverpool.

If numer-

The laying of the pipes is a formidable undertaking,
involving the careful, secure, and continuous deposit of
fully twenty-four miles of cast-iron pipe, in lengths of
about twelve feet. This pipe is forty-four inches in dia-
meter of bore, and the average weight of each length may
be taken at about three tons. The process of laying these
pipes has been entrusted to Mr. Docwra, and is being
pushed forward vigorously at different points along the
line. From the Rivington reservoir the aqueduct pipe has
been laid for about a mile, and the laying process is being
pushed on as rapidly as the nature of the work will permit
and a strong force of men and well-adapted machinery can
effect. From Liverpool the pipe hai been laid with few
interruptions as far as Eccleston.

It must be gratifying to
„learn that, so far as present
appearances warrant, the works will be completed within
the prescribed time, and will not, it is anticipated, exceed
the engineer's estimate for expenditure. Another sub-
ject, on which the inhabitants of Liverpool may be safely
congratulated, in connexion with this matter, is the cer-
tainty that when these works are completed the supply of
water furnished by them, in addition to the means already
at command, will be amply sufficient for all demands
likely to arise during many years ; and that when the
consumption shall again out-grow the supply, as it is certain
to do, there will still remain the means of obtaining a vast
additional supply, at comparatively a small cost, by im-
proving and extending, those works, which at the present
moment furnish the chief supply to the

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.