Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1886-03-23
THE SEVERN TUNNEL.
An ori1oo Twonty-six Foot wide and
Five Miles Long.

NHo AAhos hfohbs
Overcoming what at one time seemed
almost overwhelming difficulties the
Great Western Railway Company and
the engineers, Sir John Hawkshaw and
Mr.. Richardson, associated with Mr..
Walker, the contractor, have at length
completed the prodigious work of driv-
ing four miles and quarter Of tunnel be-
meath the mouth of the Severn, and have
thus connected South Wales directly
with the Great Western Railway Com
panys system on the Gloucestershire
side Of tho river. They have by this
means reduced the distance from Lon
don to Cardiff by thirteen miles, and
the time occupied in going from Bris-
tol to Cardiff to one and a quarter
hours. Recently Sir Daniel Gooch
and the staff of the works, with several
ladies, including Lady Gooch, the
whole numbering forty passengers,
were conveyed through the tunnel from
end to end in a train of saloon car
riages. They took half an hour going
through to Pitning, where the tunnel
comes out on the English side OF the
Severn, and eighteen minutes in the re-
turn journey to the Roggiett Station,
on the Monmouthshirs side. The or
dinary time to be occupied in pass
ing through the tunnel is esti-
mated at only ten minutes. The party,
both ladies and gentlemen, thoroughly
enjoyed the trip and found the atmos-
phere in the tunnel clear and the venti-
lation admirable.
The tunnel is twenty-six feet wide.
twenty feet high from the rails to the
crown Of the arch inside the brick
work, and has a double line Of rails laid
on longitudinal sleopers. More than a
mile OF II has been excavated through
the hard pennant sandstone and the
coal measures; half a mile through con-
glomerate everything the pennaTt; half
mile in the shale Of the coal measures
with some beds Of coal twelve inches
thick, and the rest was through the red
mari Of the new red sandstone. About
four and quarter miles Of actual tun-
neling are beneath the bed Of the river
and in the journey on Saturday the
whole of this was found as perfectly
dry as the floor of the room, the only
sign of water from leakage from the
onoe troublesome land springs being on
the Monmouthshire side, near what is
known as the Five Mile Four Chain
Shaft, where the great spring was
tapped in 1888, when this part Of the
works was flooded. The leakage, how
ever, was very slight, and it will be eas.
lily stopped by calking and cement work
similar In character to the plan adopted
beneath the river. The cover or depth
af the strata between the river bed
and the crown Of the tunnel has a
minimum OF thirty faot, At this point
there is always iifty-five feet Of water
over the tunnel even at low tide, while
at high tide this is increased to no less
than nlnety-two feet. Seventy-fve
millions Of brick have been used In lin
Ing the tunnel throughout with Staff
Ordshire or vitriiicd brick set in cement.
This arched crown or wall has thick
ness of three feet in the deepest palt Of
the work beneath the shoots, but as the
tuhuOA AisoS hoii Ine loWcSt pOlnb Jne
thickness is gradually reduced to two
feet and three inches; seven hundred
Thousand cubic yards of material have
been eSeavated, chiefly through rock.
and from commencement to finish the
work has in all been spread over pc.
riod of twelve years, but the present
contractor has been in possession of
the work only FIVE and half years.
A powerful fan, forty feet in diameter,
has TO be erected to complete the ven
tilation, and some cutting on the
Gloucestershire side, together with the
junction with the main lines and the
doubling Of portions of the line frop
Pathway, have to be finished before
the tunnel will be opened for traffic
LOHd0D Times.