Sydney of the Future.
This article appeared in The Sydney Mail on 14 May 1924. It has no author given at its head nor at the end. It is however included in the bound volume in the Mitchell Library embossed on the cover Articles on the Sydney Harbour Bridge by Kathleen M. Butler. It is certainly written by a Bradfield admirer! BP.
THERE is so much that is absorbing, impressive, and even fascinating in connection with the building of the new city railway, and the work involves so many phases, some technical and others of popular interest, that there is difficulty in fitting the various parts together so that the reader may grasp the scheme as a whole.
Here is the great city of Sydney being remodelled.
Here is the work which is to achieve the desired end.
And.
Here is the man, the genius of the stupendous work.
WONDERFUL SYDNEY.
THE citizens intent upon their daily occupations are reminded occasionally that Hyde Park is still an ugly gash in the heart of the city, or they may hear the muffled roar of subterranean blasting. A fleeting thought, a careless word, and in their own struggle to dynamite their way through rocks of competition and gain subsistence or something better they soon forget Hyde Park. So it will go on from time to time, until one day they will rub their eyes in wonder, and realise they are citizens of a new Sydney.
And it is a wonderful city! In the census year of 1921 the population of Greater Sydney was 1,030,800, or twice what it was in 1901. In 1922-23 the suburban railway traffic amounted to 107,313,211 passenger journeys per annum, and the tramway passenger journeys totalled 305,261,517. One may say that millions do not signify when one thinks in terms of a year, but one is forced to pause when a comparison is made with other great cities. The journeys per head of population in London are 240 and in New York are 333, whereas Sydney heads the list of all the great cities of the world with 390. The daily traffic of 316,000 persons in Sydney (the figures are on the basis of 339 full days) serves to reveal the immense importance of Central Station — of those passengers nearly seven-eighths pass through that station. At about a quarter to 6 o'clock passengers press through from the city streets at the rate of 800 per minute. The daily record at the Central is not exceeded at any of the world's big stations, even including Liverpool-street, London, Gare St. Lazare, Paris, or South Station, Boston. The tramway traffic is also worked to its full capacity, and as the streets can take no more cars the problem has to be solved in some way.
DR. BRADFIELD.
ENTER then the Engineer, in this instance Dr. J. J. C. Bradfield, of whom Chief Commissioner Fraser said not long ago: "In him we have one of the eminent engineers of the world."
The name of this distinguished public servant is generally associated with the Sydney Harbour (North Shore) Bridge. The greatest engineering firms of the world have complimented him on the excellence of his specifications for the bridge, and in professional circles his name is well known in London, New York, and other big cities, but the bridge is only one part of his work. He is carrying the burden of the city and suburban railway scheme, and when it is completed, and the bridge spans the harbour, and a modernised Sydney rushes on, as Carnegie wrote of America, "with the roar of an express," it will be time enough to fix the place of Dr. Bradfield in the history of Sydney. With his work only half done we have to observe restraint, but we can, at all events, testify to his brilliant attainments, his remarkable vision, his self-sacrifice, his passion for work, his lovable sincerity, and his modesty.
So much for the city, so much for the Man — now for the Work.
THE " BOTTLE-NECK "
HOW to give a broad view is the difficulty. Perhaps it is better to take the section that cuts right into the heart of the city. Most people can fix in their minds the closely-packed, throbbing section of about two miles extending from Redfern to Circular Quay. Almost everyone knows the old "bottle-neck" at Cleveland-street Bridge. Through those arches all trains have passed for many years, and several times the neck has been enlarged. Standing near Archdeacon Boyce's famous old church one sees men hard at work, further enlarging the neck in readiness for the new electric service. There is no "Government stroke" here; no bricklayers could work better; there is steady progress that gives every satisfaction. Before the present work began there were eight running tracks and a "shunting neck." The shunting track was through a single line arch. It was tricky work, in smoke fumes from the locomotives, making this into a double-arch span. Then two new double-track arches have to be added. This means that on completion there will be 14 tracks instead of nine under the bridge, and the expression "bottle-neck" will no longer apply. A problem arose owing to the need of diverting the main water supply pipes. One pipe line is 36 inches and the other 42 inches in diameter; if anything had gone wrong there would have been a flood. The pipes supply Sydney and the eastern suburbs. The arch work has still to be done at the Central Station end, but probably five months will see it completed. Meanwhile Mr. Farrow — the Chief Engineer's right-hand man on outside work — has carried the job through without interruption to tram or vehicular traffic over the bridge or to the train service below.
THE " FLY - OVER ".
OUR long view from the Cleveland-street Bridge to the Quay is next arrested by the stretch of gleaming steel rails between that structure and the Central Station. Here the work will be really fascinating by reason of a new idea that will at once catch the imagination of the public. Dr. Bradfield will introduce a "fly-over" system for his electric trains that will give an added 33 per cent. traffic as compared with a system of level crossings. Maximum capacity cannot be obtained with grade crossings, and in underground railways it is usually possible to avoid them by constructing fly-over junctions by suitable grading of the tracks at little extra cost; in other words, by taking one tunnel over another. Where, however, the tracks are about the same level, and are grouped together in a restricted width, the construction of "fly-overs" becomes somewhat complicated. This applies to the Central Station yard, but at other points of the city railway the fly-over junctions will not present any special difficulty. The "fly-over" simply means one train passing above another or others running in the opposite direction. If it is necessary to transfer a train from one track to another it will move overhead by the "Fly-Over." The cross up-grade is gradual, and the trains underneath will take a downward sweep, thus giving sufficient headway. Four tracks will fly over four other tracks, and, as stated, trains will be transferred from one track to another at will, according to traffic requirements. From the point at which a train begins the up-grade on the fly-over system to the point at which it settles down on the main level will be about 600 yards. In the fly-over the raised tracks will be carried on steel floor construction embedded in concrete and supported on brick piers, save for short sections of viaduct between brick retaining walls. The total amount of depression of the lower tracks will be 9ft, and the upper tracks will have a maximum elevation of 11 ft. In dealing with a system which to the lay mind is intricate some repetition may be permitted. We will put it this way: When the system has been installed an onlooker will see four electric trains coming through the Cleveland-street arches. At the same time four trains may be going out from the station. Just inside the arches the "up" (incoming) tracks will rise, and the "down" (outward) tracks will fall, until there is sufficient headway to fly the up tracks over the down tracks. They will then converge until the four up tracks are vertically over the four down tracks. When one set of tracks is thus right over the other set the traffic width is narrowed, and the routeing of the trains (i.e., directing them to any point according to their destination) is simplified. At each end of the fly-over system they spread out fanwise — in other words, both at the station end and, near the Cleveland-street arches the trains are all on the level.
THE ELECTRIC STATION.
WE now come to the existing Central Station, and take our stand at the eastern side, near Elizabeth-street. Looking citywards the work that has been done enables us to follow the track of the destined railway almost to Hyde Park. Of the park itself there is only a glimpse of the Liverpool-street corner. Where we are standing there are immense quantities of Kiama metal, to be used in concrete work. A new station (or addition) is to be built alongside the old Central, and we look into the great excavation, where there is to be an assembly hall of reinforced concrete on the same level as Eddy-avenue. There will be several spacious entrances. The side walls and massive columns will carry a reinforced concrete roof, over which the trains will run. The public will enter the assembly hall, buy their tickets, and go up a short flight of steps to the platform level, where there will be four island platforms. The new electric railway station will deal with the whole of the suburban traffic.
THREE ARCH BRIDGES.
GREAT progress has been made in the preliminaries of bridging Eddy-avenue. This will be another reinforced concrete job faced with masonry. The bridging of this avenue takes us into the old Belmore Park area, and here the tracks will be laid on an embankment with retaining walls of concrete, also faced with masonry. The citizens have already been impressed with the splendid Maroubra sandstone wall along Elizabeth-street. On the park side — viewed, from the tramway which travels up the short rise to the Central Station — the embankment will be faced with hand-packed sandstone rubble, and the sloping side will be planted with flowering creepers that will be a delight to the eye……….It has to be kept in mind that from the electric station six tracks will continue into the city…………At the extremity of Belmore Park we are, perhaps, only 450 yards from the electric station, and here the gap that was made by Hay-street has been bridged. It is a reinforced concrete job, and it is curious to see on the concrete wall the impression of the grain of the timber used when the concrete was poured in. The wall is so smooth that it seems to be purely a colour effect. The street is wide under the bridge, and looking up at the arch one has the feeling that it is wise to let time mellow the concrete, instead of treating the surface. It is only a short distance to the next gap, which is made by Campbell-street, and here another arch bridge is to be built. Then comes a large area which at present is chaos, although much work has been done. Here will be erected an immense building that will be the offices of the Railway Commissioners. From its windows one will look back along the tracks across the three arch bridges to the electric station. The building will be 400ft long by about 125ft wide, and it will rise to the maximum height allowed, 150ft. With steel frame and concrete floors, it will be faced with brick and sandstone. The main front will be to Goulburn-street, and provision has been made for a green space that will be a refreshing feature of this part of the city.
AND NOW UNDERGROUND!
IMAGINE the work done to this point (near Goulburn-street), with the great Railway Offices towering skywards. Electric trains move from the station, less than half-a-mile away, traverse the three small arch bridges, and on crossing the third one at Campbell-street they disappear under the Commissioners' offices. Out of sight of the onlooker, they enter the tunnel system just before Goulburn-street is reached. Two tracks will pass through tunnels on the eastern side to Liverpool-street Station, glancing across the corner of Mark Foy's foundations, while four tracks will go by tunnels to the western side of the city, with stations under the Town Hall and Wynyard-square. The rest of the story — to Manly on a summer day via the North Shore Bridge — must be left for the present.
APPROACHING THE QUAY.
FOR the purposes of the present article we can refer only in a few words to the tremendous work going on in Hyde Park. An inspection a few days ago revealed that the tunnelling and station-building (at the Liverpool-street end) have reached stages that enable one to fairly well visualise the system. There is a grandeur in human labour on such a scale, and it is only when one has an engineer at his elbow that he realises the difficulties that have to be surmounted. In making the twin tunnels to connect Liverpool-street station with the flat-top construction further south an original method was adopted which was entirely successful, and which we hope to describe later. It is also worthy of note that Dr. Bradfield, who knows underground Sydney as well as he knows its surface, has solved the sewerage and drainage problem by a direct connection with the main Bondi sewer traversing Elizabeth-street. There is a lot to interest a visitor, including the divergence from the double-line tunnel into two single track tunnels between Liverpool-street and Park-street; also (the tunnels near St. James' Station that "shoot" towards the Quay, and which include the double-track for the eastern suburbs traffic. On Thursday last some visitors were in a tunnel under Macquarie-street opposite the Sydney Hospital. Having followed the track of the new railway from Cleveland-street arches they realised the progress of the undertaking — the Quay was not far distant. This article, nevertheless, touches only a portion of the work. Nothing — beyond a bare reference — has been said of the western city tunnels nor of the traffic system which will so simplify movement from one suburb to another, and from the suburbs to the seaside, that the people of Sydney will feel that for a long period they were in the Dark Ages and that engineering wizardry has brought them into the light.
The City Railway work has so far accounted for the following:— 194,198 bags of cement; 34,818 tons of Nepean gravel; 33,446 tons of metal; 12,339 tons of Nepean sand; and 1,040,490 bricks from the State brick works. The record of work done is as follows:— Excavations, 443,799 cubic yards; concrete, 57,543 cubic yards; brick work, 2271 cubic yards; rock-faced masonry, 60,253 cubic feet; chisel-dressed masonry, 33,686 cubic feet.
