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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 29, 1985
PAGE 7
The following article from the March 10 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH reveals how seri
ous and detailed the engineering studies have been for the past two months.
Both the British and French seem committed to seeing the project through to
completion this time.
A fixed traffic link between Britain and France across the Eng
lish Channel must guarantee adequate protection against terrorist
attacks, prevent the spread of rabies [ which Britain has been
able to do so far], combat travellers' anxiety and last 120
years, says a report by the Anglo-French working group•••consist
ing of a dozen civil servants from both countries••••
The group was very concerned with the safety of a cross-channel
structure which would have to stand the test of wind, rain, snow
and ice in the case of bridges and tides, currents and wave ac
tion for tunnels. The possibility of collision with shipping re
quires measures to "at least preserve the structure if there is a
collision involving any vessel travelling at a speed of 17
knots". Other components, other than those which are easily re
placeable, should be able to last for 120 years, the report says.
The prospect of a fire in a tunnel has been considered together
with the more routine problems related to the difficulty of keep
ing a long tunnel (up to 30 miles) ventilated.
Finally, the January 31, 1985 ASSOCIATED PRESS carried a brief history on
the various tunnel attempts of the past, focusing on the doubts the British
have had toward the project:
Although the two governments are talking seriously about the pro
ject for the first time in a decade, doubts persist, given the
tunnel's checkered history, the uncertain economic future and
traditional British-French animosities. Today's opponents range
from ferry operators fearful of being put out of business to the
Englishwoman who told� radio call-in program that the English
Channel had saved Britain from invasion "and� want to keep it
that way."
As Winston Churchill, a tunnel enthusiast, wrote in 1936: "There
are few projects against which there exists a deeper, and more
enduring prejudice than the construction of a railway tunnel be
tween Dover and Calais. Again and again, it has been brought
forward under powerful and influential sponsorship.
Again and
again it has been prevented." •••
Historians credit a French mining engineer, Albert Mathieu, with
the first tunnel plan. In 1802, he disclosed a scheme using
stagecoaches drawn by horse relays changing at an artificial is
land in mid-channel. Napoleon liked the idea, possibly as a con
venient invasion route, but he never got it going. Since then,
work on a channel tunnel has been started twice, and the British
canceled it both times. In 1883 it was because of fears the
French would use the underwater passage for a sneak invasion.
And in 1975, after a few hundred yards of tunnel had been dug on
both sides of the channel, the British prime minister, Harold
Wilson, scrapped the project unilaterally because of worries over
the world oil crisis••••