The New York Rapid-transit Subway

116 DISCUSSION ON NEW YORK SUBWAY. [Minutes of Sir John Wolfe Barry. The contractor will be required, in constructing the railway along or across streets, and at such other places as the engineers will direct, to provide over the whole site of the covered way a temporary platform, or coverings which will consist of balks of whole timber not less than 12 inches square, laid at distances of not less than 4 feet centre to centre, and covered by two layers of planking, the lower layer not less than 4 inches thick, and the upper layer not less than 3 inches thick, platform will have to be effectually supported by timber, and effectually main- tained, and beneath it the works will have to be carried on. That was done, and there was consequently no obstruction of traffic. The lump sum put into the contract to cover that clause was £7,500 for the whole of the work from the Mansion House to Aidgate, so far as it passed under public streets, which was a very large portion of the way. The Whitechapel contract contained the same clause. He did not wish it to be understood that this was the price per mile, because there were portions under private property where there was no planking. The same remar applied to the Whitechapel extension, the cost of those precautions on the Whitechapel line being £9,000. Therefore the matter was a comparatively small affair when it had to be dealt with. Exactly the same process was carried out in the underground railway through the heart of Glasgow, passing down Argyle Street and other main thoroughfares for 2 or 24 miles-and he believed the traffic along a considerable portion of Argyle Street was comparable with the traffic of the Strand—and again, in a great city like Glasgow, there was no obstruction of traffic on account of either sewers or gas-pipes. Another matter he had omitted to mention was the cost of the shallow subways in London and Glasgow, in regard to which he was able to give some figures. It would be understood that he was giving only the cost of the works, and not the price of the land. The railway from the Mansion House to Aldgate cost £440,000 per mile without stations, and £532,000 per mile with stations, the stations on that line being extraordinarily difficult and very numerous. From Aldgate to Whitechapel the cost of the line without stations was £270 000 per mile, and £301,000 per mile with stations. The White- chapel and Bow Railway, 24 miles long, cost £350000 per mile without stations, and £430,000 with stations. The 3 miles of the Glasgow Central Railway cost £200,000 per mile without stations, and £308,000 with stations, the stations in Glasgow being also very heavy and difficult. All those lines were double lines of ordinary railway, large enough to accommodate all the rolling stock of the suburban lines, and the stations were designed on the most liberal scale, with very long and wide platforms In the fore- going figures the cost of diversion of sewers, and of traffic precautions and underpinning, was included.