RIVER TUNNELS
[To the. Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The new road tunnel under the River Mersey is now complete : it is to be officially opened by the King in July. Its construction has provided work for many thousands of work-people over the past nine years : when in full operation it will be a valuable addition to the transport facilities in the North West of England.
Will the building of the Mersey Tunnel be followed by the building of some of the many other river tunnels which from time to time have been discussed ? Will a start be made, for instance, with a tunnel under the Tyne and a tunnel under the Humber; the roads across both of which are badly congested ? And what about the many new bridges we need so badly in many parts of the country, and the long overdue rebuilding of existing bridges ? I am told that there are over 7;000 bridges in urgent need of reconstruction.
A new road tunnel is more "spectacular than the rebuilding of an old bridge; but in the prosaic task of rebuilding is work crying out to be done; work which sooner or later will have to
be undertaken. In the past two and a half years public works like road-making and bridge-building have largely been stopped. Now that we are past the worst of the industrial depression this leeway should be made up.
A programme of bridge-building and repairing and road- making and repairing is urgently needed. It would help industry and it would stimulate employment. Today when money is cheap and men are idle and a new spirit of enter- prise is abroad in the land is the time to undertake it.—
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