Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History History of Mersey Tunnels Video

Most of you who went to the tunnel walk on fathers day 2 weeks ago there was a video given out Titled "History of Mersey tunnels" well here it is.. (Its in 2 parts cause of yout00bs limit) Enjoy...

Part one:
[youtube]0byufn7PR94[/youtube]

Part two:
[youtube]j1Mgh4ryAR0[/youtube]

Thanks Soundlad. That's really good. It's helps a bit knowing what your money goes towards!

excellent videos lee and yes its very interestin to find out wot our money is actually spent on excellent videos lee

interestin. nice one bud excellent video

Great Stuff.

Excellent Vids

Thanks for posting that, Lee. Now, here's a puzzle which has been troubling me & Pinzgauer. Have a look at part 1 of the video, at
1m 45s in, where it shows the Birkenhead junction chamber. Now compare it with the attached picture from a book published by the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee in the 1950's. See the difference?

Yer it looks posh on that photo.. What happened to it lol..

In the photo the left tunnel wall has a jagged appearance.In the video it's smooth

Great pictures Chris.

All I see is the same as Colgo does. Why the difference?

thought it was gonna be boring but watched it all! at 00:33 lol

good post Lee

Not the difference Chris refers to, but note how clean and well maintained the tunnel walls and "ceilings" are. When I lived on the Wirral, the tunnel was regularly pressure washed & scrubbed with a purpose made semi-circular rig. Used to be done in the wee small hours. Any peeling paint was rapidly attended to.

I'm back on the Wirral for a few days and will be going through the tunnel again later today. I'm sure it will be smoke blackened, filthy, peeling paint throughout. Standards have plummeted whilst tolls continue to rise! A look at the photos of the recent walk through the tunnel will highlight the state of the place.

Mersey Travel - you inherited a well maintained masterpiece of civil engineering. What have you done to it ?? No doubt you will be "modernising" the magnificent Georges Dock Building next ? A light industrial type "tin shed" would do surely.MMmmmm.

Rant over. Time for my soggy Weetabix.

Surprised no one's spotted the difference yet.

Ah, but they have, Mike; Colgo was first. The top of the black glass dado originally was parallel with the roadway. In the later picture, it is stepped. I'm trying to find reasons/dates for this change, also, the date when this fine original feature of the tunnel was replaced with crummy cream plastic, which the tunnel staff admit is much harder to keep clean.

Just thought i would give this a little bump just incase some people havnt seen it

Nice bit of video ..
I seem to remmber there was lit up arrows in the roadway and traffic lights to turn right into the birkenhead dock exit when comming from l.pool. Was this the case ?