Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1913 — Rebuilding Underground Canal. [ARTICLE]

Rebuilding Underground Canal.

t About $2,000,000 is to be expended in rebuilding the underground section of the canal leading from the Marne to the Rhine. The Mauvages tunnel, as it is called, is three miles long; it was built sixty years ago and carries the canal under elevated ground at this point, ’the old masonry lining proving insufficient, a new and heavier lining of beton is being put in throughout the whole length. Navigation may not be stopped and the work is carried out on the Fougerolle system, which allows of working for short periods at a time. The process consists of dividing the tunnel Into 600-foot sections, each section being pumped dry in one hour’s time tc allow work to be carried on for one day, when the canal is again flooded to give passage to the boats. The pumping is done from two boatlike caissons, one at each end of the section. The tunnel is approximately elliptical with a two-foot eight-inch beton lining, the inside width of the section being about twenty-eight feet