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Isambard Kingdom Brunel: Tunnels
built 627 days ago
Although Isambard Kingdom Brunel was not born in Bristol, much of his work was carried out here. The son of Marc Brunel, a noted engineer, he first came to Bristol in 1828, convalescing after an accident in tunnel construction under the Thames.
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Work began in September 1835, and Brunel stamped his style on practically every inch of the track and the structures that were needed to carry it through the countryside. Take for example Box Tunnel near Bath. This tunnel is nearly two miles long and was opened in June 1841. It is estimated that 4,000 men and 300 horses were used dig this tunnel. It took 5 years to build, cost £6,500,000 and took the lives of around 100 men as well as the many more that were injured. It is said that on the 9th April, Brunel's birthday, the rising sun shines straight through it.
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In 1818 Marc Brunel designed and patented a tunnelling shield. This moved the tunnel face forward and prevented collapse whilst work was done lining the hole. The design led to the formation of the Thames Tunnel Company (1818) and allowed the excavation of the Thames Tunnel to commence. This eighteen year project boring under the open sewer of the Thames suffered two major disasters. Isambard himself nearly drowned in the second flooding of the tunnel and bankrupcy threatened Marc Brunel as he struggled to manage the dangerous and difficult conditions.
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Brunel's other works included docks, viaducts, tunnels and buildings and the remarkable prefabricated hospital, with its air-conditioning and drainage systems for use in the Crimean War. Inevitably, in such a prolific career, there were setbacks and disappointments such as the atmospheric railway but he readily admitted his mistakes. Indeed he himself suffered financially by supporting his ventures with his own money.
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Though ultimately unsuccessful, another of Brunel's interesting use of technical innovations was the atmospheric railway, the extension of the GWR southward from Exeter towards Plymouth, technically the South Devon Railway (SDR), though supported by the GWR. Instead of using locomotives, the trains were moved by Clegg and Samuda's patented system of atmospheric (vacuum) traction, whereby stationary pumps sucked air from the tunnel.
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Brunel oversaw every aspect of railway design, from the track itself to the track layout, bridges, tunnels, rolling stock, even the lamp posts for the railway stations! He was not above rolling up his sleeves and joining his workmen in their digging.
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