Shafts may be either temporary or permanent. They are temporary when
they are filled in after the tunnel is completed, and permanent when
they are left open to supply ventilation to the tunnel. Permanent shafts
are usually made circular, and lined with brick, unless excavated in
very hard and durable rock. When sunk for temporary use only, shafts are
usually made rectangular with the greater dimension transverse to the
tunnel. They are strutted with timber. A pump is generally located at
the bottom of the shaft to collect the water which seeps in from the
sides of the shaft and from the tunnel excavation. The dimensions of
this pump will of course vary with the amount of water encountered, as
will also the capacity of the pump for forcing it up and out of the
shaft, which has always to be kept dry.
The majority of engineers prefer to sink shafts directly over the center
line of the tunnel. Side shafts are employed chiefly by French
engineers. The chief advantage of the former method is the great
facility which it affords for hoisting out the materials, while in favor
of the latter method is the non-interference of the shaft with the
operations inside the tunnel. Were it not that the side shaft requires
the introduction of a transverse gallery connecting it with the tunnel,
it would be on the whole superior to the center shaft; but the side
gallery necessitates turning the cars at right angles, and consequently
the use of a very sharp curve or a turntable to reach the shaft bottom,
which is a disadvantage that may outweigh its advantages in some other
respects. It is impossible to state absolutely which of these methods of
locating shafts is the best; both present advantages and disadvantages,
and the use of one or the other is usually determined more by the local
conditions than by any general superiority of either.
When side shafts are employed they are sometimes made inclined instead
of vertical. This form is used when the depth of the shaft is small. By
it the hauling is greatly simplified, since the cars loaded at the front
with excavated material can be hauled directly out of the shaft and to
the dumping-place, surmounting the inclined shaft by means of continuous
cables. The short galleries connecting the side shafts with the tunnel
proper usually have a smaller section than the tunnel, but are excavated
in exactly the same manner. Another form of side shaft sometimes used is
one reaching to the surface when the tunnel runs close to the side of
cliff, as is the case with some of the Alpine railway tunnels.
CLASSIFICATION OF TUNNELS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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