CO129-559-1 Canton - Hankow Railways 15-1-1936 - 23-6-1936 — Page 36

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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.