The engineer for the ship canal and its locks, bridges and swing aqueduct was Edward Leader Williams. James Abernethy had been asked to report on the various proposals for the project and had favoured Leader's scheme.
Abernethy was then appointed consulting engineer and he regularly visited the construction sites. William Hunter was the design engineer. Salford Docks closed in the s and have now been redeveloped as Salford Quays for residential and leisure uses. Some 8m tonnes of cargo is transported along it annually. The construction provided employment for thousands of men. It was opened for traffic to Manchester on January 1, The formal opening by Queen Victoria took place nearly five months later on May Seventy- one vessels entered the docks on the memorable January day when the city threw open her new water- gate to ocean shipping and turned her face towards prosperity.
The record of the port has been one of success from the time of its opening. The annual tonnage has risen from under a million to nearly seven millions. The building of the Ship Canal introduced many difficult engineering problems. The Bridgewater Canal, for instance, had to be carried over the Ship Canal on a swing aqueduct. The present steel aqueduct, which opens to allow the passage of vessels up and down the Ship Canal, replaced the stone aqueduct designed originally by James Brindley.
The new aqueduct was necessary because of the size and height of ships using the Ship Canal. The original stone aqueduct was fixed. The Bridgewater Canal, if it was to continue to span the new waterway, had to be carried across on a swing bridge.
The present aqueduct is a swing bridge revolving on a central pier. It is built in the form of a trough. To avoid the delays that would occur on either waterway by the emptying and refilling of the trough every time the bridge was opened, it is swung when full of water. This is achieved by closing, with a system of gates, the ends of the trough and the abutting ends of the Bridgewater Canal.
When the bridge is to be opened, these gates are closed and the swinging section with its trough of water moves into a position in line with the Ship Canal. When it is swung back across the Ship Canal again, the gates are opened and the trough becomes once more a continuous section of the Bridgewater Canal. To keep the aqueduct water- tight when closed was a greater problem than that of imprisoning the water to allow the bridge to be opened.
These wedges each weigh twelve tons and are operated by hydraulic rams. The Port of Manchester comprises all the dock systems along the canal, including the large oil docks and storage tanks at Stanlow, near Ellesmere Port, on the Mersey.
The aqueduct is illustrated below. There are seven fixed bridges across the Ship Canal. The lowest has 73 ft 6- in headroom, and vessels that are too high for this have the their top masts and the upper portions of their funnels removed by sheer- legs in the lay- bye at Eastham.
The aqueduct is feet long, 23 ft 9- in wide and 33 feet high. The moving structure weighs 1, tons, including tons of water. It is turned by hydraulic machinery operated from a control tower on the central pier, and revolves on roller bearings. The docks at Manchester have a water space of acres. The quays exceed five and a half miles in length and the open storage area approximates acres. The dock equipment includes 52 hydraulic, 44 steam, and electric jib cranes, with a radius of from 16 feet to 40 feet.
Further facilities are provided by electric overhead travelling cranes, 36 electric hoists, a floating crane with a lifting capacity of 60 tons, and a pontoon- sheers with capacity up to tons and lift of 21 feet.
As an oil port, Manchester is second only to London in Great Britain. In the early years,consignments came solely in casks, but in tanks were installed and the new technique in oil- handling was inaugurated.
The traffic was at first confined to heavy oils. The oil undertakings were established just below the Mode Wheel Locks at the entrance to the Manchester Docks, where the Ship Canal Company provided the necessary berthing facilities. The heavy oil traffic has developed until in the storage tanks there had a Capacity of more than 56,, gallons. The next step in the development of Manchester as an oil port was the provision of facilities for petroleum spirit and low flash- point oils.
Four and a half miles above the entrance to the canal, at Eastham. Contribute to your community by becoming an area ambassador. Find local services Search for trusted local businesses near you. Share this. Download our new app Available for both iPhone and Android.
0コメント