Beacon Hill Tunnel - History

History

A team of surveyors were commissioned to survey the route for the KCR British Section in 1905. Two routes have been proposed:

  1. Construction of a tunnel 1.5 mile (2.4 km) long through Beacon Hill then following the west coast of Tolo Harbour
  2. Routing through Western New Territories and Castle Peak Bay

Although option 2 was less of an engineering challenge, the overall route was longer, and passed through less economically active areas; therefore option 1 was selected. Works on the 35.4 kilometers (22.0 mi) railway to the border started early 1906. Construction of the tunnel, referred to as Tunnel No.2 in the plan (since it was the second tunnel starting from Kowloon), was the greatest engineering project in Asia of its time.

The tunnel opened with rest of the line in October 1910, together with four smaller tunnels. It accommodated a single standard track with a standard gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in). It has, however, been notorious for its fume problems throughout its operating life; due to its steep gradient of 1%.

A double tracked, electrified tunnel was built to 30 to 40 metres west of the original one as part of the modernisation of the KCR. Work started in 1978, and was completed by 1981, the railway now the MTR East Rail Line. The original tunnel was closed upon completion of the new tunnel, and is now occupied by a 750 mm diameter town gas pipeline.

Read more about this topic:  Beacon Hill Tunnel

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
    Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)

    The history of all Magazines shows plainly that those which have attained celebrity were indebted for it to articles similar in natureto Berenice—although, I grant you, far superior in style and execution. I say similar in nature. You ask me in what does this nature consist? In the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical.
    Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)

    If you look at the 150 years of modern China’s history since the Opium Wars, then you can’t avoid the conclusion that the last 15 years are the best 15 years in China’s modern history.
    J. Stapleton Roy (b. 1935)