This unique vehicle was used to clean the roof surface of the Queensway (Birkenhead) Mersey Road Tunnel from 1964 until the 1970s. It is based on a Douglas DH84 crane carrier chassis, with cleaning machinery specially designed and built at the Liverpool City Engineer’s depot at Breckside Park. 

The curved ramps with rotating scrubbers matched the curvature of the tunnel roof but ramps of different curvature had to be fitted for different stretches of the tunnel, and these needed a crane to change them which made it very unwieldy to use. When the Kingsway (Wallasey) Tunnel opened in 1971 a more modern vehicle was commissioned.

The eight-wheeled vehicle weighs 26 tons (26 tonnes) in total. Registration number CKA155B.

Mersey Tunnel Scrubber | National Museums Liverpool

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This unique vehicle was used to clean the roof surface of the Queensway (Birkenhead) Mersey Road Tunnel from 1964 until the 1970s. It is based on a Douglas DH84 crane carrier chassis, with cleaning machinery specially designed and built at the Liverpool City Engineer’s depot at Breckside Park. The curved ramps with rotating scrubbers matched the curvature of the tunnel roof but ramps of different curvature had to be fitted for different stretches of the tunnel, and these needed a crane to change them which made it very unwieldy to use. When the Kingsway (Wallasey) Tunnel opened in 1971 a more modern vehicle was commissioned. The eight-wheeled vehicle weighs 26 tons (26 tonnes) in total. Registration number CKA155B.

Mersey Tunnel Scrubber

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