The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-04-21
PLAN TO DAM THE THAMES
4 ROYAL COMMISSION CoNSID-
 BRING THE CONSTRUCTION

A@hA w A 1T 6 OO~ts~- ~- v N@ ~ -
 Of Barrage From Gravesend to Til-
 bury-The Device Would Do Away
 With the Present Expensive Docking
 system-The Dam Would Provide a
 Lake Forty-six Miles in Length.
 London has, for long time, sought solution of the natural difficulties which beset the shipping of the port owing to the extreme tidal conditions prevailiSs in the Thamts, and the matter is now under consideration by royal commis
 sion. As there is a difference of some thing like eighteen or twenty feet be- tween high water and low water, all the important shipping must be handled m docks wherein the vessels lie indepen- dent of the tidal fiuctuation. The oo- feet of the royal commission is to de- wise means whereby the shipping facill- ties may be increased. This is ques- tion of the utmost importance from the fact that London lays claim to the iar-
 gest tonnage, imports and exports ta- ken together, of any city of the world and there is much dissatisfaction among shipowners over present conol- | tions.
 m the consideration of this commis- sion there has just been submitted stupendous engineering plan by wnlch it is proposed to convert the Inames
 into a great inland lake, at high water'
 from Grayesend to Richmond, by means of q barrage across the river from Gravesend to Tilbury. The plan is the device of T. W. Barber, M. Inst, c. E., land it is his claim that the construction
 of such dam would not only meet the
 desires of thee shipping interests or
 London. but would be far less expensive than any other plan aimed at accom-
 nlishing similar results. As an engl-
 neering problem the constructor ol such a barrage is not difficult when one lconsiders the success of the great Nlle dam, and Mrs. Barber's plan is recelv- ing serious consideration
 The royal commission has had many plans submitted to it, and last year, lupon it's recommendation. bill was in- troduced by the government proposing lthe formation of port of London trust, with optional power to purchase all the great docks of the Thames, and respon- sible for the dredging out of the river 7 flor deeper water to the docks In the
 upper reaches of the waterway. In the sEpressure of business this bill was sus-
 pended. but it has been, reintroduced for
 the current session.
 Now comes the suggestion by MT
 Barber and with 1t a detailed statement
 of the superior advantages 1t offers
 At the point selected by him for the
 construction of the barrage the bed oi
 the river is firm chalk, so the question
 of stable foundation is answered al
 once. The barrage. MT. Barber claims
 would give the Thames a navigablt ,Idepth of sixty-five feet at Gravesenc
 and thirty-two feet at London Bridge
 without the necessity of dredging. Al any hour Of the day or night, entirely k Independent of tide conditions, all ship' drawing thirty feet of water could pro
 ceed to London Bridge, and all vessels Iof all tonnages and all draughts could , ltraverse the stream. could anchor any ! where, or lie alongside any wharf.
 One of the main claims made by tn designer of the barrage would make i possible to leave all dock entrance open, thus saving an enormous expense lthe London and India Docks conlpan, estimating the annual expenditure fo , working it's dock entrances alone at fiji : ty thousand pounds. The safety ant facility of navigation would be in creased, also, as vessels would not hay . to lie out in the stream, but if the, ! should do so the possibility of ground ing would be eliminated, as would tn ] danger of collision due to tidal drift The suggested barrage, or dam, Is structure of mass concrete, granite-cla'
 on all exposed faces. Four or nor t locks. each with both internal and ex 3 ternal gates, in order that they may b l worked at long or short lengths, in ac cordance with the traffic, are provide . for. The lengths designed will be thre l hundred, five hundred, seven hundre' : and one thousand feet the widths eigh . ty and one hundred feet. With the sub : mission of these figures it is pointed ou [ that as the largest vessel in the world : the White Star Line steamship Baltic } now being finished at Belfast, is seve ? hundred and twenty-six feet in lengtf g with a beam of seventy-five feet six an . lone-half inches, the dock dimension 3 are such as to meet all demands. A !, least two. hundred and twenty vessel 9 pass lip and down the Thames daily l and it is maintained that all of thes , and more could be accommodate e through the loeks, the pressure of tn . dam doing away with the catching c t tides and the consequent congestion C t traffic at particular times..
 Mir. Barber's barrage is designed wit | two particular features, a tunnel in tn . foundations to permit a joining of tn railways on the two sioes of the rive e and a wide roadway on the surface ( !, the dam, with movable bridges over tn n locks, for both vehi eles and passengers By the construction of the barraeg : London would be provided with a lak 9 forty-fve miles long and from ont . fourth to one-half mile wide, the dis I tance between Tilbury and Gravesen I being about eight hundred yards. Th = cost of. the, undertaking is estimated g e G3,65S, ,000, and, from all accounts, LOT y don does not consider this sum ali LII g ren senable exDenditrlre for a StructuI