Lorries at Work on London's Longest Water Tunnel
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SEVERAL fleets of lorries are working day and night to complete London's longest water tunnel. It will cost £4m. and •carry water for 19 miles from the River Thames at Hampton to reservoirs at Chingford and the Lea Valley, in north-east London.
An Austin truck belonging to one of the three contractors working on the tunnel, Kinnear Moodie and Co., Ltd., has covered 65,000 miles carrying materials and equipment to and from the working shafts. These are at intervals of approximately a mile and vary in depth from 67 ft. to 192 ft.
Kinnear Moodie are using six prime movers and 12 semitrailers, a 5-ton tipper and 10 Hon vans on the contract.
A typical load for the prime movers consists of 10 tons of concrete segments, which are used instead of conventional steel piping in the construction of the tunnel. The Austin 5-ton long-wheelbase tipper carries timber. plant and men, and averages 700-800 miles every week.
A. Waddington and Son. Ltd., have been engaged on the contract for the four-mile stretch from Walthamstow to Islington since May, 1955. Four vehicles carry plant and materials from their depot to the site. They are two A.E.C. 10-tanners, a Bedford 8-tonner and a Thames 6-tonner. A Bedford 15-cwt. van is used on the sites where deep shafts arc sunk.
The clay and waste from the tunnel is loaded on to wagons and palled to the surface by an electric engine running on narrow-gauge rails. The waste is then disposed of by tippers operated by subcontractors. An Austin 5-ton articulated outfit operated by Kinnear Moodie and Co., Ltd., being loaded with a crane section for transport to the site of the new 19mile water tunnel now being built from Hampton to the Lea Valley.
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The third contractors. Wm. Press and Son, Ltd., have sub-contracted all transport operations to the Ham River Grit Co. A.E.C.. Bedford and Foden tippers are used to deliver sand and shingle and take away the spoil from their site at Ferry .Lane, Tottenham.
The Metropolitan Water Board estimate that the tunnel will be completed by the end of 1959. So fat 10 miles of tunnel have been constructed.
REFLECTED GLORY
WHEN the driver of a dual-purpose vehicle was prosecuted at Huddersfield last week for having no second mirror on his vehicle, as required by the regulations which came into force on January 1, it was stated that the charge had been brought for publicity purposes and not with the idea of a -large penalty being imposed.
He was granted an absolute discharge on payment of 4s. costs.
LATEST TAX RULES
SUPERSEDING the 1954 edition, "Purchase Tax: Road Vehicle Chassis. Mechanically Propelled," has been issued by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise. King's Beam House, Mark Lane, London. E.C.3. It contains up-to-date information on the levying of the tax on different kinds of vehicle, together with guidance on its application to modified vehicles.