Abstract
WITH the arrestive title of “Dam the Thames”, a brochure has been issued by the Thames Barrage Association advocating the scheme put forward a short time back in a paper read before the London Society by Mr. J. H. O. Bunge, who is honorary secretary of the Association since formed to promote the impounding of a large section of the Thames estuary. The original proposal is modified in respect of the position of the proposed barrage, which it is now suggested should be located at Woolwich. The cost of the scheme is estimated at about 4£ millions sterling, but, as has been abundantly demonstrated in other projects of corresponding magnitude, this figure must be received with a certain amount of reserve. According to the pamphlet, the resultant savings, enumerated under eighteen categories, would aggregate about £611,000 per annum, representing a capitalised value of 20 millions sterling. Some of the items of this calculation seem to be based on data of a rather uncertain character, so that here, too, the estimate must be considered more or less speculative. An official, public inquiry into the merits of the scheme is urged on the grounds that the scheme, if carried out, would be of great advantage to navigation in maintaining a permanent water level in the river and so enabling craft to move freely, and independently of tidal restrictions, in and out of the docks, and to and from the riverside wharves above Woolwich; in excluding sewage effluent at present brought up-river by tidal flow from the outfalls at Crossness and Barking; and in avoiding the risk of flooding at times of abnormally high tides. Various other benefits are categorically enumerated.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
A Thames Barrage. Nature 136, 904 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136904a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136904a0