Perth Amboy evening news., 1910-07-27
STATEN ISLAND
TUNNELSEEMS
CLOSE AT HAND

New York, July 27:-Staten ISL
and is to be connected with the rest
of the world through a tunnel under
the Narrows. Built on an original
plan, never before attempted it is
said, this tunnel is to be as wide as
Broadway from house line to house
line, some twenty-eight feet in the
clear, and contain two railroad
tracks and two auto and carriage
roads.
This tunnel Is not to be built I'M
der, but chiefly on the bottom of
the Narrows, as Stephen M. Hoye,
president of the New Jersey and
Staten Island Junction Railroad
Company, explained yesterday. The
franchise to build a tunnel which
should contain a post road was
granted to the company back in
1880, as President Hoye said, but
the trouble was to overcome the
enormous grade at the shore ends of
the bore.
The new plan, in brief, is to drive
piles under the water, saw them off
level and then plant a tunnel, in sec
tions, on top of them. In part, the
tunnel will be on the level of the
bottom, though in places it will drop
below that level.
Can Be Done In Year.
The company is capitalized at
$4,000, 600, the estimated cost of
the tunnel.
President Hoye, who was found in
his Office at No. 266 Fifth avenue,
surrounded by plans of the new un-
dertaking, said that work would
probably begin next fall and it was
expected that all of the tunnel, save
the terminals, will be completed in
a years time. He continued:
1--WE have now only to obtain the
consent of the War Department to
huiId this style Of Tunnel, because it
will be in places ten or eleven feet
above the bottom of the Narrows;
but as this will allow of a depth over
1t of more than forty feet even at
mean low water, it will not inter
fore With navigation, nor will nav
igatiou interfere with It. The ap-
plication is now being made to the
War Department, and / believe it
will be granted.
Our tunnel is planned to run
from Stapleton, S. L., to Eighty-sixth
street, Brooklyn, and connect with
the new Fourth avenue subway, now
being built.
THE present plan simply raises
the bed of the tunnel so that the
grade at the ends is less than one
per cent. An expert engineer and
contractor who has examined the
plans tells me that the tunnel can
be built by this method for $1,000
per lineal foot. We have a little
more than a mile under water to
build. l not only say that this is the
best method of tunneling the Mar
rows, but by eason of the grade at
the ends it is the only way.
Concrete and Steel.
1--WE shall form a foundation for
the side walls of the tunnel by driv-
ing two double rows of piling, filed
In between with concrete. The piles
are then to be sawed off under wa
ter SO that they are levelled to the
fraction of an inch. We then practi-
cally have two walls stretching
across the Narrows under water and
slightly above the bottom. Between
these walls other piles are driven
to form the foundation for the
floor of the bore. The top half of
the tunnel will then be built in Sec
lions consisting of double frames of
steel filled in between with concrete
and covered outside with layers of
brick or concrete.
These sections, n at a time,
will be ioated and sunk so as to rest
on the foundation walls under the
surface. The shore sections will be
placed first, with the water end
closed. There also will be a tempo
rary floor in the upper sections, SO
that the water may be pumped out
of them after they are sunk to their
positions"