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River. Heng chow, which is 338 miles from wong sha, is situated
midway between the two terminals uchang and Canton. The
track has been laid northwards from Lok Chong (mileage 170)
to the Sun Huan Ho Bridge at the 205th mile just north of
Ping Shek. The track has been laid southwards from the Lei
Ho Bridge just north of Heng chow (mileage 340) to Ko Ting Se
(mileage 273), from Chuchow (mileage 422) to the northern
banks of the Lo Ho (bridge not yet completed) and from the
southern banks of the Lo Ho to the 366th mile just south of
Heng shan. The mileage of track laid is 158 and there is
still 94 miles to do. Most of the earthwork, all the major
tunnels, and the main bridges and culverts have been completed.
All that remains of a major nature is to complete three steel
bridges over the Lo Ho, the Mi Ho, and the Lei Ho, between
Chuchow and Heng chow, and five reinforced concrete aroh
bridges between Ping Shek and Ko Ting, mileages 202 and 273
respectively. The arches oross shallow water with solid
rock bottom and high banks, and the reasons advanced to me
for their adoption instead of steelwork were firstly that a
considerable saving in time in construction would be obtained,
and secondly that they were desirable from an aesthetic point
of view. As regards the first reason, there is no doubt that
transportation difficulties with steel trusses and girders
would have been considerable, due to the absence of suitable
water courses just north of the Provincial divide. As regards
the second reason, the choice of arches was particularly
fortunate as the scenery is extremely beautiful and would
have been spoilt by steel bridges. I was informed that the
actual cost of the arches was approximately 12 per cent more
than the estimate for steel. It is reasonable to infer,
however, that the increased receipts obtained by an earlier
opening to traffic will far more than offset such a slight
increase in capital cost.