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Estimate of the Expense of constructing a Canal between the Two Seas, on Line of Project No. 1, distance being seventy-five miles —
Canal 21 feet deep, 96 feet wide at bottom, and 180 wide at top at water line; giving a sectional area of 322 square yards. Supposing the ground to be nearly level, and supposing it subject to slight depressions on the line connecting the surface of the two seas equal in amount to the slight elevations above the same line, then the quantity of excavation would also amount to 322 cubic yards in each yard of distance; and, from all accounts, the surface of the country must be pretty nearly as we have assumed it. The soil is light, yet, by several accounts, tenacious enough to stand without walling; and the absorption of water by the ground and the air being so great as to leave dry, hollows from 20 to 54 feet below the level of the Red Sea, there is little danger or expense to be apprehended from the influx of water by springs or otherwise; and, under these conditions of the country, I should consider 8 d. per cubic yard as a fair price for the excavation ; for, though wages in the Levant may be only one-fifth of what they are in England, I do not expect that more work would be performed for the same money.
The total length of the canal being seventy-five miles, or 132,000 yards, the total quantity of excavation would be 42,504,000 cubic yards.
Estimate of Expense.
42,504,000 cubic yards of excavation, at 8 d. . . £1,416,800 0 0
Masonry in 64 gauged ribs and sundry works . . 60,000 0 0
Works at the two extremities in piers, dredging, &c. 200,000 0 0
1,676,800 0 0
Contingencies . 167,680 0 0
Sundry works not enumerated xo 167,680 0 0
Total... £ 2,012,160 0 0