Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1911 — TUBES IN CHICAGO RIVER. [ARTICLE]

TUBES IN CHICAGO RIVER.

Making a Conecting Link in One Hundred Million Dollar Passenger Tunnel. Chicago, April 2, —The Chicago river, mythically famed as the stream on which a man once fell in summertime and broke his leg, acquired a new distinction today when it became the scene of a notable engineering feat. Thousands of persons lined the banks and crowded the bridges, docks, barges and buildings in a heavy snowstorm to see the sinking of a giant doublebarreled tube which is to be used as a tunnel for street cars, and ultimately is to be absorbed as a link in the proposed $100,000,000 Chicago passenger subway. The twin tube of steel weighs 8,000 tons, is 280 feet long, 30 feet wide and 20 feet high. It was built at Goose Island on the north branch of the river, and was floated down to LaSalle street two months ago. There it was lined with two feet thickness of concrete.

Meantime dredges were scooping out for weeks the hollow in the river into which the tubes were to be sunk. Every appointment needed to be perfect. The slightest slip in the execution of the plans, according to the contractor, would involve a loss to him of SIOO,OOO. Today was chosen to drop the tubes into place. By permission of the War Department the»gates of the drainage canal at Lockport were closed at 5 o’clock this morning. Five hours later the water in the river had attained the level of the lake and at the tunnel point it was as still as a country pond. Tugs pulled the steel tubes into place crosswise of the river. Valves were opened and water poured into compartments at either end. Slowly the tubes began to sink. By 2:30 o’clock they were resting in the big groove below. The next step will be to pump out the water and to connect either end of the tubes with the land tunnels. The tunnel and the incline approaches thereto will be 2,014 feet long. The work will cost $1,166,000.