FORT BONIFACIO TUNNEL VISITED BY THE TUNNEL RATS 2012 JULY 24TH, 3rd SET OF IMAGES
X80-- The chamber, I mentioned earlier as straight ahead from the steps is large and is concreted.
X81-- The main tunnel going north, to 27th Ave East Rembo, only the walls are concrete. Right and left are many, now empty spaces, chambers. At the far end the tunnel curves to the right, east.
X82-- At this beginning of this curve is a small ceiling collapse. That is the only one I seen but of course there could be more. Also I regret not to have looked in all the chambers, spaces, right and left from the main tunnel. Professor Rico Jose is interviewed by Lucky Guillermo here.
X83-- From this and the previous picture one can tell this collapse occurred at the curved section of the main tunnel going to the 27th Ave, East REMBO. In this image we are looking back in the direction of the steps.
X84-- Some spaces, chambers are completely open to the main tunnel, i.e. they do not have door openings.
X85-- After we made the right turn to 27th Ave. there is this space, chamber, to the right, with a large hole. I estimate the hole to be 10 x 10 feet square and between 20 to 30 feet deep.
X86-- The hole has clear water in the bottom and we figure that must be ground water, I seen this in other tunnels.
X87-- Most of us are assembled around the hole.
X88-- Now we are looking over the hole and see a door opening. This space, chamber with the hole had 3 door openings.
X89-- What I failed to capture in this image of this very smooth ceiling, overhead is one could see the chisel cuts that cut this section of the overhead very smooth.
This segment I accompany with a “Report” of the visit, more like written down observations:
Karl’s Report 2012-07-24
Hi to All again
Started this email about 2130 hours, cleaned up now, and all the gear is put away. The bus took 5 hours from Passay, slow driver and heavy road improvement in San Fernando, Pampanga.
We all met at the appointed hour and I believe we got along well. The Global people, as requested by the tunnel rats, I believe, by Dr. Rico and perhaps Gen. Aguilar I believe went out of their way in preparing this visit. They had emergency people there, lots of security, had the metal plate removed from above the steps and even rigged lights.
Here are some of my observation, real fast, not my final ones. I find the stairs are very steep, the metal handrail have been cut off and aren't there anymore but Global had an emergency rail out of line rigged which was very helpful.
For my talk I will assume that the main tunnel runs more or less on a north-south axis. A first short set of steps leads to the south to a square area. Then the steps continue to the right, west, I estimate, maybe a length of 6 times as long or deep as the first set. They end at what I call the main tunnel running on an north-south axis. The lights were rigged to the north direction and we went there first. Right at the right corner was a small space we speculated maybe was an office or guard post.
All along this north tunnel were concrete walls right and left but the overhead, ceiling, was rough earth material, not concrete or cement. I you looked with a certain light direction one could see all the chisel marks which cut the overhead pretty smooth. At only one location a relative small amount of ceiling has fallen down. That fallen material covered perhaps an area of 6 by 6 feet and at one point may was 2 feet high or deep. It had a few rocks in it, maybe one piece was as big as a American style foot ball. The ground, floor, was concrete and on each side run a small channel, sunk, perhaps the size of 2 inches deep, 4 inches wide.
On each side large and small spaces were dug, they were of different sizes, the smaller ones were just like a cube open to the main tunnel and were rough, no concrete walls but had smooth walls and overheads. But they are of considerable size one could store many truck loads of materials in there. Some of the large spaces, I estimate were 50 feet long, perhaps 20 feet wide and had a large door size opening at each end into the main tunnel. They were also rough, no concrete but again smooth walls and overhead, I don't remember what the floor was like.
At a length of about 400 feet the tunnel gradually turns to the right, perhaps to a right angle, in the east direction. In one of the right large side chambers was a large square hole into the ground. Perhaps, 10 feet by 10 feet square and perhaps 20 to 30 feet deep and filled half way with clear water. I would guess that is ground water. On this whole leg the floor, ground, was from damp to a few inches of water. The lights were not rigged any further. We didn't go to the end and rather we all drifted back to where we came down from the steps. I believe the Global staff said there was a little deeper water at the end.
Having returned to the bottom of the steps, we looked in the other direction, south and noticed one more set of steps had to be descended. Most of us did. This southern leg did not have concrete walls, only rough earthen walls and overhead. The compartments, chambers, at each side were similar as the northern leg. The water was deeper. This leg was perhaps 100 feet longer before it bend to the left, east. Just before the bend, at right, a narrow shaft went up. It was in about a 45 degree angle, narrowed at the top, no daylight could be seen, nor could we see the end. It was wet and would have been risky to climb.
Our Global companions told us after the tunnel bends to the east the water gets knee deep and they believe there was less oxygen or perhaps the air is not safe. So we didn't go further. They also said that both ends have steel bar type doors in place. We all retreated and went back up to the surface which I assume are secured and can't be opened. But today we didn't see neither one.
When one is with such a large group of people and we are all strangers to each other and we are imposing on the Global organization it is just not a situation that one can carefully measure things, spaces, distances, count spaces, of what different sizes etc. So all these things didn't get done. Speaking for myself I feel honored to have been allowed to tag along with such a fine group of distinguished people. And We should be thankful that the Global organization put up with us and supported us to such a large extend.
In regards of plans to open the tunnel it would take some effort. LIGHT is a problem, there doesn't seem to be any airflow or ventilation, that might be of concern, the quality of the air. Those steps are steep and the horizontal length is short and one has place the foot a little sideways and no handrails, they certainly have to be replaced. These steps are not for everyone, I certainly had to slow down at the top and rest.
Different subject, weather; it was fine in Makati both days, Monday and Tuesday. Not so here in Subic Bay. It had been raining Monday morning and it was stormy and the power went out at 0430 in the morning, or earlier and stayed off to about 1400. Today my family said it was rainy and right now at 2300 it is pouring and we got thunder.
I very happy that I was able to tag along with all of you and I'm happy that I made your acquaintance or in the case of Lucky and Dr. Rico to get to know each other better. Thank you very much to all of you and to Lou who could be here.
Greetings, and cheers
Karl
REMINDER:
These photos about this visit are posted in this album at a higher resolution, all 49 images:
app.photobucket.com/u/PI-Sailor/a/49d7b6b7-1b5f-45dc-8942-cb05e8ff00d2?field=TITLE&desc=ascClick on the icon “i” to read the image description!
