The first real work of the culverting of the Yangkin was started on November 9%, 1914, when the first tube of the culvert was laid by the French Council. The first tube laid by the S.M.C. was put down on March 16, 1915, and the last on June 21,—a matter of a few days more than ye months. The work of actual construction of the roadway was begun early in November last. The chief difficulty the engineers have had to contend with has been the filling in, due to the soft mud filling used and the fact that there is no stone or gravel formation in the soil. Mud dredge ed from Soochow Creek and from The Bund foreshore was used. The section that gave the most trouble was that between The Bund and Szechuen Road.
With the exception of The Bund Bridge, which will have to be scrapped, all the other bridges were removed intact and some use may be made of them. The lowering of the new roadway at the former bridge points necessitated also the lowering of the side roads and this work is practically finished on the Settlement side, and while the French authorities still have much work to do in this connexion, their work is not far behind that of the Settlement engineers, All the roads leading off the new avenue, on both sides, will have rounded corners with a wide sweep, and the engineers, in planning the road, have made every arrangement possible for the accommoda: tion of extensive traffic. In the straightening of the road the windings of the former creek are abolished, the Councils of each municipality gaining a bit of land here and losing it there, the one offsetting the other.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.