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APPENDIX, No. IV.

REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO INQUIRE INTO THE AMOUNT OF ALL SUMS OF MONEY RECEIVED, EXPENDED, AND REPAID BY THE COMMISSIONERS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE HOLYHEAD AND LIVERPOOL ROADS.

May 30, 1830. THE Committee have proceeded in making the inquiries referred to them, and find from the accounts which have been laid before them, that the Commissioners appointed by the act of the 55th Geo. 3. c. 152. for the improvement of the Holyhead road, have received the sum of 759,718/. 6s. 11d.; that of this sum 338,518. 14s. ld. has been granted by Parliament, without any condition for repayment, for works in North Wales; that 394,114l. 6s. 6d. has been granted by Parliament, or advanced by the Exchequer Bill Loan Commissioners, by way of loan, towards the building of the Menai and Conway bridges, the making of the new road across the Island of Anglesey, and the improvement of the road between London and Shrewsbury; and that repayments have been made to the amount of 103,633l. 2s. 2d. The details of the expenditure of the sum received by the Commissioners, of 759,7107. 6s. 11d., are stated in an account in the Appendix.

In order to ascertain in what manner the Commissioners have applied the money entrusted to them, the Committee examined their engineer, Mr. Telford, who produced the statement which is here inserted, containing a short description of each work that has been executed by the Commissioners since they were appointed to superintend the improvement of the Holyhead road, in the year 1815, under the following heads :

1. Roads made in North Wales on the London and Holyhead Mail line.

2. Roads made in North Wales on the Chester and Holyhead Mail line.

3. Embankments on the Stanley Sands and at Conway. 4. Bridges over the Menai Strait, and over the river Conway.

5. Roads made between London and North Wales on the London and Holyhead Mail line.

6. The Harbours of Holyhead and Howth.

7. The Road from Howth to Dublin.

8. The widening and deepening the Channel through the Swilly Rocks in the Menai Straits.

Statement of the Works performed between the Years 1815

and 1830.

HOLYHEAD ROAD.

NORTH WALES.

Holyhead to Chirk.

Between Holyhead Pier and Chirk Bridge is a distance of 83 miles 1,320 yards. The whole may be fairly considered a new road, as the short pieces of the old road were entirely re-made. The whole of the roadway is constructed with a substantial rubble-stone pavement, carefully hand-set, and covered with a six-inch coating of properly broken stone. There are, in all cases where found necessary, breast and retaining walls of stone, with numerous side and cross drains, all constructed in the most perfect manner. The whole is protected with stone walls; those upon precipices built with lime mortar, most of the others pointed with it. There are several considerable bridges, also numerous cuttings and embankments, in that mountainous country; one, particularly, at the village of Chirk, is 50 feet in height. Four miles of branch roads

have been made. The toll-houses and gates are on a new construction, as are the milestones; and sufficient recessed depôts for stones have been made in every part of the road. An entirely new inn has been built in the middle of the island of Anglesey, upon the new line of road.

CHESTER LINE.

Tally Pont Hill.

From Tally Pont Bridge a new road has been made upon comparatively level ground, to avoid the inconveniently steep inclination of Tally Pont Hill, and to save distance, 1 mile 132 yards. This road is made with a pavement bottom, and a covering of hard field pebbles, properly broken.

Penman Mawr.

This improvement consists chiefly of rock cutting, in some parts 30 feet in height, with high breast and retaining walls, stone parapets laid in lime mortar; the roadway is formed of pavement bottoming and a coating of broken stone; so that this formerly frightful precipice is now a safe trotting road.—Distance improved, 1 mile 231 yards.

Penman Back.

Between Penman Mawr and the town of Conway, excepting a short distance, a new road has been made to avoid Sychnant Hill, over which the mail road formerly passed, by dangerous inclinations, to upwards of 540 feet above the level of the sea. The new road is nearly level, having no inclination more than one in twenty-five, and that only for a short distance of about 100 yards; the rock cutting required in some instances, in the face of a precipice, 100 feet in height. The roadway is, in all respects,

similar to that at Penman Mawr, as to breast and retaining walls, parapets, &c.- Distance improved, 4 miles, 1408 yards.

Rhyalt Hill.

Up a valley between St. Asaph and Holywell, a road has been made to ease the steep and long-continued ascent of Rhyalt Hill, which, in some cases, was one in seven. The new roadway is made with bottom paving and broken limestone, with very good side and cross drains.-2 miles 1166 yards.

EMBANKMENTS IN NORTH WALES.

Stanley Sands.

Near Holyhead there is an inlet of the sea, known by the name of the Stanley Sands: over this estuary an embankment, 1144 yards in length, has been made; the height above the undisturbed surface of the sands, in the middle, is 29 feet: the breadth at the top, including the parapet walls and outer facing, is 34 feet; the slopes on each side are at the rate of three to one, and these slopes are faced with rubble stone, two feet in thickness; on each side of the road there is a parapet four feet in height, coped with cut stone. The roadway is 24 feet in width; it has a paved bottom and a coating of broken stone. In order to admit the tide to flow into the space on the west side of the embankment, there is a bridge built upon the only piece of natural rock found in that part of the estuary. This work was executed in two years; 156,271 cubic yards of earth, and 25,754 cubic yards of rubble stone, were deposited in forming it: it has been completed seven years, and is now in a perfect state.

Conway Embankment.

The eastern approach to Conway Bridge is formed by an embankment upon the sands, over which the tide usually

flowed, and rendered it a very difficult and dangerous passage. The distance from the eastern shore to the island is 672 yards; the height of the embankment, on account of the sand being swept away by the violence of the tides during the execution of the work, is 54 feet; its breadth at the base is 300 feet, and 30 feet at the roadway the side slopes are faced with rubble stone.— 261,381 cubic yards of earth, and 51,066 cubic yards of rubble stone, were employed in forming it. The whole has been finished three years, and is now in a perfect

state.

BRIDGES IN NORTH WALES.

Besides several stone bridges, three of a novel description were required:

Menai Bridge.

Over the Menai Strait, which separates the island of Anglesey from Carnarvonshire, in order to supersede an inconvenient ferry, it was found, after many years investigation and discussion, that in a navigable and rapid tideway, a bridge upon the principle of suspension was the most practicable and economical; a bridge of that description, therefore, was begun in 1818, and successfully completed and opened on the 30th of January, 1826. This structure being of very unprecedented novelty and magnitude, considerable apprehensions were entertained concerning its stability; the engineer, therefore, by the advice of his friend, the President of the Royal Society (one of the Commissioners), considerably increased the height of the piers, and the dimensions of the masonry and ironwork, beyond the original design, and this unavoidably led to corresponding increase of expense; but as all the works were paid for at the prices previously fixed in making the first estimate, and as the quantities

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