E.254/12.
Private.
B
COPY OF
EXTRACT.
M. Henderson Esq., M. Inst., C.E.
Engineer,
Water Department,
4th August 1926.
Public Works Department,
Hong Kong.
Dear Mr. Henderson,
SJ
HONG KONG HARBOUR CROSSING.
In writing to you re the above, I am doing so quite unofficially, and only for the purpose of bringing before your notice, for your consideration, another method by which a supply of water could be brought from Kowloon to Victoria at a cost possibly half that of the Gravity Scheme which was prepared last year when you were home.
The whole question depends on whether the Government can make actually enforceable the prohibited anchorage over the line of the pipes.
I have recently been supplied with a report by Mr. Duncan, the Port Engineer, which is full of matter bearing on this point, and has a number of views up down and across the harbour which give one the local atmosphere better than engineering plans and sections can do.
The line across the harbour may be divided into two sections. From the Hong Kong side there is 3400 feet which is within the area of the naval anchorage and which has numerous moorings; the securing chains for which would appear to offer a considerable amount of safeguard for any dragging anchor passing
over.
Between the Naval Anchorage and Kowloon there is 2500 feet where further safeguards are required. In addition to which it is practically the fair way to the main traffic in the Harbour.
If the Government could render effective the regulation for prohibiting anchoring, although it does not appear to me that in certain states of the weather such regulation could be enforced, still, assuming that it could be, and that the prohibited area to the West where the telegraph cables are would act also as a guard, then it is possible you might consider whether two small diameter pipes laid across the harbour on the bottom without excavating a deep trench, as in the gravity scheme, might not meet the case in the first instance.
If you are willing to assume that as a first instalment four million gallons passed from one side to the other would meet your case, it might be possible to lay two small diameter steel pipes which would have many advantages over the larger pipes, but which would require to have a Boosting Station on the Kowloon side so as to get the necessary head and pressure to pass the quantity of water required. This I do not see any great difficulty in doing assuming that there were two 9 inch pipes, or possibly 12", the quantity of water mentioned could be passed without requiring any exceptional pressure or head. No doubt the Boosters (electrically driven) would have a certain amount of maintenance charges for attendance and electric current, but I do not think
this
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