It's interesting to realise that the ventilation system as it now exists was very much a last-minute decision. It was only in late 1930 that alarm bells began to ring as a result of a problem in a tunnel in Pittsburg when several people had been affected by carbon monoxide poisoning. This resulted in a re-think fairly late on in the construction process and which increased the total cost of the tunnel from £5,222,000 to £7,723,000. This resulted in a new Parliamentary bill which allowed the extension of the toll period from 25 years to 40 years (can you hear me, Merseytravel?). The extra cost fell upon the ratepayers of Liverpool and Birkenhead.
Nice link bert. I love the picture showing the scale of the vent shaft here Cheers for that PDF Chris, what a find We now know it is the Taylor st shaft not in use What I found most interesting in the article was the addition of another vent to prevent the build-up of deadly fumes in the centre of the tunnel when the traffic levels got so high. It would be easy to not notice this vent or not even know what it is, unlike the huge structures of the other vents And one of them is a dummy vent because it looks aesthetically pleasing can you imagine them building another Georges Dock vent on the other side of the Liver building I have always thought they were just an architectural feature (well one of them is anyway ) "The architect of the original ventilation buildings, Herbert Rowse, insisted, quite rightly, that the arrangement was kept symmetrical"
At the end of the article there is another first "One final point on the lighting, which possibly represents another first, although this time in the Kingsway (Wallasey) Tunnel, is that the warning signs installed in the Tunnel soon after it opened in 1971, used fibre optics. These signs incorporated two lamps, one to illuminate the word ‘STOP’ and one to illuminate the word ‘ENGINE’. The intention was that, in case of emergency or hold-up, the second lamp would come on a few minutes after the first one, so that stationary vehicles did not increase the pollution level" That sign is now in the tunnel museum
Found another interesting article published 9 March 1937 "The problem was so important that extensive full-scale experiments were made before the choice of a ventilation system was made" http://wondersofworldengineering.com/merseytunnel.html Jeez, I'm going on a bit now aren't I?
Found another interesting article published 9 March 1937 "The problem was so important that extensive full-scale experiments were made before the choice of a ventilation system was made" http://wondersofworldengineering.com/merseytunnel.html Jeez, I'm going on a bit now aren't I?
"Going on a bit" is what these threads in the History section are all about; the acquisition and spreading of knowledge. The threads on, for instance, the Tranmere and Bidston tunnels run to many pages. Thanks for the link: not only the Mersey tunnel but many more interesting subjects there.
I've been up the Georges Dock shaft - the control room for the lighting and ventilation is at the top. It's a wonderful building inside full of Art Deco fixtures and fittings, surprising considering how few people were ever going to see them.
The control panel is (was?) huge, is curved in a dark wood, probably mahogany.
At the time I was working for a computer repair company and had been called out to look at the PC controlling the tunnel lighting. In those days additional lighting was turned on and off to match the conditions outside so drivers exiting the tunnel weren't blinded by bright sunlight. Older readers may remember the huge banks of lights mounted on the roofs at each tunnel exit. Those are long gone. They were turned on and off by the PC I was called out to fix, and the controlling program was written in Microsoft BASIC loaded from a floppy.
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shows you how fast technology is moving
