Underground tunnel for heatpipes between Rigshospitalet and Amagerværket in Denmark.

Underground railway tunnel on the Taipei Metro in Taiwan.

Coal tunnel under construction using handset aluminum concrete forms.

A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for ingress and egress, commonly at each end.

A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers. Other uses include routing power or telecommunication cables, some are to permit wildlife such as European badgers to cross highways. Secret tunnels have given entrance to or escape from an area, such as the Cu Chi Tunnels or the smuggling tunnels in the Gaza Strip which connect it to Egypt. Some tunnels are not for transport at all but rather, are fortifications, for example Mittelwerk and Cheyenne Mountain.

In the United Kingdom, a pedestrian tunnel or other underpass beneath a road is called an underpass subway. In the United States that term now means an underground rapid transit system.

The central part of a rapid transit network is usually built in tunnels. Rail station platforms may be connected by pedestrian tunnels or by foot bridges.

Usage limitations[link]

A tunnel is relatively long and narrow; in general the length is more (usually much more) than twice the diameter, although similar shorter excavations can be constructed such as cross passages between tunnels.

The definition of what constitutes a tunnel can vary widely from source to source. For example the definition of a road tunnel in the United Kingdom is defined as "a subsurface highway structure enclosed for a length of 150m or more."^[1]. In the United States the NFPA definition of a tunnel is "An underground structure with a design length greater than 23 m (75 ft) and a diameter greater than 1800 mm (6 ft)."^[2].

Geotechnical investigation[link]

A tunnel project must start with a comprehensive investigation of ground conditions by collecting samples from boreholes and by other geophysical techniques. An informed choice can then be made of machinery and methods for excavation and ground support, which will reduce the risk of encountering unforeseen ground conditions. In planning the route the horizontal and vertical alignments will make use of the best ground and water conditions.

In some cases conventional desk and site studies yield insufficient information to assess such factors as the blocky nature of rocks, the exact location of fault zones, or the stand-up times of softer ground. This may be a particular concern in large diameter tunnels. To give more information a pilot tunnel, or drift, may be driven ahead of the main drive. This smaller diameter tunnel will be easier to support should unexpected conditions be met, and will be incorporated in the final tunnel. Alternatively, horizontal boreholes may sometimes be drilled ahead of the advancing tunnel face.

Construction[link]

Cut-and-cover constructions of the Paris Métro in France

Tunnels are dug in types of materials varying from soft clay to hard rock. The method of tunnel construction depends on such factors as the ground conditions, the ground water conditions, the length and diameter of the tunnel drive, the depth of the tunnel, the logistics of supporting the tunnel excavation, the final use and shape of the tunnel and appropriate risk management.

There are three basic types of tunnel construction in common use:

• Cut and cover tunnels, constructed in a shallow trench and then covered over.
• Bored tunnels, constructed in situ, without removing the ground above. They are usually of circular or horseshoe cross-section.
• Immersed tube tunnels, sunk into a body of water and sit on, or are buried just under, its bed.

Cut-and-cover[link]

Cut-and-cover is a simple method of construction for shallow tunnels where a trench is excavated and roofed over with an overhead support system strong enough to carry the load of what is to be built above the tunnel. Two basic forms of cut-and-cover tunnelling are available:

• Bottom-up method: A trench is excavated, with ground support as necessary, and the tunnel is constructed in it. The tunnel may be of in situ concrete, precast concrete, precast arches,or corrugated steel arches; in early days brickwork was used. The trench is then carefully back-filled and the surface is reinstated.
• Top-down method: Side support walls and capping beams are constructed from ground level by such methods as slurry walling, or contiguous bored piling. Then a shallow excavation allows making the tunnel roof of precast beams or in situ concrete. The surface is then reinstated except for access openings. This allows early reinstatement of roadways, services and other surface features. Excavation then takes place under the permanent tunnel roof, and the base slab is constructed.

Shallow tunnels are often of the cut-and-cover type (if under water, of the immersed-tube type), while deep tunnels are excavated, often using a tunnelling shield. For intermediate levels, both methods are possible.

Large cut-and-cover boxes are often used for underground metro stations, such as Canary Wharf tube station in London. This construction form generally has two levels, which allows economical arrangements for ticket hall, station platforms, passenger access and emergency egress, ventilation and smoke control, staff rooms, and equipment rooms. The interior of Canary Wharf station has been likened to an underground cathedral, owing to the sheer size of the excavation. This contrasts with most traditional stations on London Underground, where bored tunnels were used for stations and passenger access.

Open building pit[link]

An open building pit consists of a horizontal and a vertical boundary that keeps groundwater and soil out of the pit. There are several potential alternatives and combinations for (horizontal and vertical) building pit boundaries. The most important difference with cut-and-cover is that the open building pit is muted after tunnel construction, no roof is placed.

Clay-kicking[link]

Clay-kicking is a specialised method developed in the United Kingdom, of manually digging tunnels in strong clay-based soil structures. Unlike previous manual methods of using mattocks which relied on the soil structure to be hard, clay-kicking was relatively silent and hence did not harm soft clay based structures.

The clay-kicker lies on a plank at a 45-degree angle away from the working face, and inserts a tool with a cup-like rounded end with his feet. Turning the tool with his hands, he extracts a section of soil, which is then placed on the waste extract.

Regularly used in Victorian civil engineering, the methods found favour in the renewal of the United Kingdom's then ancient sewerage systems, by not having to remove all property or infrastructure to create an effective small tunnel system. During the First World War, the system was successfully deployed by the Royal Engineer tunnelling companies to deploy large military mines beneath enemy German Empire lines. The method was virtually silent not susceptible to listening methods of detection.^[3]

Boring machines[link]

A tunnel boring machine that was used at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, United States

Tunnel boring machines (TBMs) and associated back-up systems are used to highly automate the entire tunnelling process, reducing tunnelling costs.

Tunnel boring in certain predominantly urban applications, is viewed as quick and cost effective alternative to laying surface rails and roads. Expensive compulsory purchase of buildings and land with potentially lengthy planning inquiries is eliminated.

There are a variety of TBMs that can operate in a variety of conditions, from hard rock to soft water-bearing ground. Some types of TBMs, bentonite slurry and earth-pressure balance machines, have pressurised compartments at the front end, allowing them to be used in difficult conditions below the water table. This pressurizes the ground ahead of the TBM cutter head to balance the water pressure. The operators work in normal air pressure behind the pressurised compartment, but may occasionally have to enter that compartment to renew or repair the cutters. This requires special precautions, such as local ground treatment or halting the TBM at a position free from water. Despite these difficulties, TBMs are now preferred to the older method of tunnelling in compressed air, with an air lock/decompression chamber some way back from the TBM, which required operators to work in high pressure and go through decompression procedures at the end of their shifts, much like divers.

In February 2010, Aker Wirth delivered a TBM to Switzerland, for the expansion of the Linth–Limmern Power Stations in Switzerland. The borehole has a diameter of 8.03 metres (26.3 ft).^[4] The TBM used for digging the 57-kilometre (35 mi) Gotthard Base Tunnel, in Switzerland, has a diameter of about 9 metres (30 ft). A larger TBM was built to bore the Green Heart Tunnel (Dutch: Tunnel Groene Hart) as part of the HSL-Zuid in the Netherlands, with a diameter of 14.87 metres (48.8 ft).^[5] This in turn was superseded by the Madrid M30 ringroad, Spain, and the Chong Ming tunnels in Shanghai, China. All of these machines were built at least partly by Herrenknecht.

Shafts[link]

A shaft is sometimes necessary for a tunnel project. They are usually circular and go straight down until they reach the level at which the tunnel is going to be built. A shaft normally has concrete walls and is built to be permanent. Once they are built, Tunnel Boring Machines are lowered to the bottom and excavation can start. Shafts are the main entrance in and out of the tunnel until the project is completed. Sometimes if a tunnel is going to be long, multiple shafts at various locations will be bored so that entrance into the tunnel is closer to the unexcavated area.^[6]

Other key factors[link]

• Stand-up time is the amount of time a tunnel will support itself without any added structures. Knowing this time allows the engineers to determine how much can be excavated before support is needed. The longer the stand-up time is the faster the excavating will go. Generally certain configurations of rock and clay will have the greatest stand-up time, and sand and fine soils will have a much lower stand-up time.^[7]
• Groundwater control is very important in tunnel construction. If there is water leaking into the tunnel stand-up time will be greatly decreased. If there is water leaking into the shaft it will become unstable and will not be safe to work in. To stop this from happening there are a few common methods. One of the most effective is ground freezing. To do this pipes are inserted into the ground surrounding the shaft and are cooled until they freeze. This freezes the ground around each pipe until the whole shaft is surrounded frozen soil, keeping water out. The most common method is to install pipes into the ground and to simply pump the water out. This works for tunnels and shafts.^[8]
• Tunnel shape is very important in determining stand-up time. The force from gravity is straight down on a tunnel, so if the tunnel is wider than it is high it will have a harder time supporting itself, decreasing its stand-up time. If a tunnel is higher than it is wide the stand up time will increase making the project easier. The hardest shape to support itself is a square or rectangular tunnel. The forces have a harder time being redirected around the tunnel making it extremely hard to support itself. This of course all depends what the material of the ground is.^[6]

Sprayed concrete techniques[link]

The New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) was developed in the 1960s, and is the best known of a number of engineering solutions that use calculated and empirical real-time measurements to provide optimised safe support to the tunnel lining. The main idea of this method is to use the geological stress of the surrounding rock mass to stabilize the tunnel itself, by allowing a measured relaxation and stress reassignment into the surrounding rock to prevent full loads becoming imposed on the introduced support measures. Based on geotechnical measurements, an optimal cross section is computed. The excavation is immediately protected by a layer of sprayed concrete, commonly referred to as shotcrete, after excavation. Other support measures could include steel arches, rockbolts and mesh. Technological developments in sprayed concrete technology have resulted in steel and polypropylene fibres being added to the concrete mix to improve lining strength. This creates a natural load-bearing ring, which minimizes the rock's deformation.

Illowra Battery utility tunnel, Port Kembla. One of many bunkers south of Sydney.

By special monitoring the NATM method is very flexible, even at surprising changes of the geomechanical rock consistency during the tunneling work. The measured rock properties lead to appropriate tools for tunnel strengthening. In the last decades also soft ground excavations up to 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) became usual.

Pipe jacking[link]

Pipe Jacking, also known as pipejacking or pipe-jacking, is a method of tunnel construction where hydraulic jacks are used to push specially made pipes through the ground behind a tunnel boring machine or shield. This technique is commonly used to create tunnels under existing structures, such as roads or railways. Tunnels constructed by pipe jacking are normally small diameter tunnels with a maximum size of around 3.2m.

Box jacking[link]

Box jacking is similar to pipe jacking, but instead of jacking tubes, a box shaped tunnel is used. Jacked boxes can be a much larger span than a pipe jack with the span of some box jacks in excess of 20m. A cutting head is normally used at the front of the box being jacked and excavation is normally by excavator from within the box.

Underwater tunnels[link]

There are also several approaches to underwater tunnels, the two most common being bored tunnels or immersed tubes. Submerged floating tunnels are a novel approach under consideration, however no such tunnels have been constructed to date.

Other[link]

Other tunneling methods include:

• Drilling and blasting
• Hydraulic splitter
• Slurry-shield machine
• Wall-cover construction method.

Costs and cost overruns of tunnels[link]

Tunnels are costly and generally more costly than bridges. Large cost overruns are common in tunnel construction.^{[9] [10]}

Choice of tunnels vs. bridges[link]

For water crossings, a tunnel is generally more costly to construct than a bridge. Navigational considerations may limit the use of high bridges or drawbridge spans intersecting with shipping channels, necessitating a tunnel.

Bridges usually require a larger footprint on each shore than tunnels. There are actually more codes to follow with bridges than with tunnels. In areas with expensive real estate, such as Manhattan and urban Hong Kong, this is a strong factor in tunnels' favor. Boston's Big Dig project replaced elevated roadways with a tunnel system to increase traffic capacity, hide traffic, reclaim land, redecorate, and reunite the city with the waterfront.

The 1934 Queensway Road Tunnel under the River Mersey at Liverpool was chosen over a massively high bridge for defence reasons. It was feared aircraft could destroy a bridge in times of war. Maintenance costs of a massive bridge to allow the world's largest ships navigate under was considered higher than a tunnel. Similar conclusions were met for the 1971 Kingsway Tunnel under the River Mersey.

Examples of water-crossing tunnels built instead of bridges include the Holland Tunnel and Lincoln Tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan in New York City, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel between Manhattan and the borough of Queens on Long Island, and the Elizabeth River tunnels between Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, the 1934 River Mersey road Queensway Tunnel, the Western Scheldt Tunnel, Zeeland, Netherlands, and the North Shore Connector tunnel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Other reasons for choosing a tunnel instead of a bridge include avoiding difficulties with tides, weather and shipping during construction (as in the 51.5-kilometre or 32.0-mile Channel Tunnel), aesthetic reasons (preserving the above-ground view, landscape, and scenery), and also for weight capacity reasons (it may be more feasible to build a tunnel than a sufficiently strong bridge).

Some water crossings are a mixture of bridges and tunnels, such as the Denmark to Sweden link and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in the eastern United States.

There are particular hazards with tunnels, especially from vehicle fires when combustion gases can asphyxiate users, as happened at the Gotthard Road Tunnel in Switzerland in 2001. One of the worst railway disasters ever, the Balvano train disaster, was caused by a train stalling in the Armi tunnel in Italy in 1944, killing 426 passengers.

Variant tunnel types[link]

Double-deck tunnel[link]

Some tunnels are double-deck, for example the two major segments of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge (completed in 1936) are linked by a double-deck tunnel, the largest diameter bore tunnel in the world.^[11] At construction this was a combination bidirectional rail and truck pathway on the lower deck with automobiles above, now converted to one-way road vehicle traffic on each deck.

The 1934 Queensway Tunnel under the River Mersey between Liverpool and Birkenhead was originally to have road vehicles running on the upper deck and trams on the lower. During construction the tram usage was cancelled. The lower section is used for cables, pipes and emergency accident refuge enclosures.

The Lion Rock Tunnel, built in the mid-1960s connecting New Kowloon and Sha Tin within the territory of Hong Kong, carries a motorway and an aqueduct.

A recent double-decker tunnel with both decks for motor vehicles is the Fuxing Road Tunnel in Shanghai, China. Cars travel on the two-lane upper deck and heavier vehicles on the single-lane lower.

Multipurpose tunnel are tunnels that have more than one purpose. The SMART Tunnel in Malaysia is the first multipurpose tunnel in the world, as it is used both to control traffic and flood in Kuala Lumpur.

Artificial tunnels[link]

The 19th century Dark Gate in Esztergom, Hungary.

Over-bridges can sometimes be built by covering a road or river or railway with brick or steel arches, and then leveling the surface with earth. In railway parlance, a surface-level track which has been built or covered over is normally called a covered way.

Snow sheds are a kind of artificial tunnel built to protect a railway from avalanches of snow. Similarly the Stanwell Park, New South Wales steel tunnel, on the South Coast railway line, protects the line from rockfalls.

Common utility ducts are human-made tunnels created to carry two or more utility lines underground. Through co-location of different utilities in one tunnel, organizations are able to reduce the costs of building and maintaining utilities.

Hazards[link]

Owing to the enclosed space of a tunnel, fires can have very serious effects on users. The main dangers are gas and smoke production, with low concentrations of carbon monoxide being highly toxic. Fires killed 11 people in the Gotthard tunnel fire of 2001 for example, all of the victims succumbing to smoke and gas inhalation. Over 400 passengers died in the Balvano train disaster in Italy in 1944, when the locomotive halted in a long tunnel. Carbon monoxide poisoning was the main cause of the horrifying death rate.

Examples of tunnels[link]

In history[link]

Eastern portals of Liverpool Edge Hill tunnels. The tunnel seen on the left with tracks is the the 1846 second Crown Street Tunnel, next on the right is the 1829 Wapping tunnel, to the right again hidden by undergrowth, is the original 1829 Crown Street Tunnel.

A short section remains of the 1836 Edge Hill to Lime Street tunnel in Liverpool. This is the oldest used rail tunnel in the world. A tilting train emerges from the tunnel which is just visible in the distance.

CPRR Summit Tunnel was in service from 1868 to 1993.

Lehigh Tunnel, Pennsylvania

Liverpool Lime Street Approach. A two track tunnel was removed to create a deep cutting. The road bridges seen across the cutting are solid rock and in effect a series of short tunnels.

• The World's oldest underwater tunnel is rumored to be the Terelek kaya tüneli under Kızıl River, a little south of the towns of Boyabat and Duragan in Turkey. Estimated to have been built more than 2000 years ago (possibly 5000), it is assumed to have had a defence purpose.
• The qanat or kareez of Persia is a water management system used to provide a reliable supply of water to human settlements or for irrigation in hot, arid and semi-arid climates. The oldest and largest known qanat is in the Iranian city of Gonabad, which after 2700 years, still provides drinking and agricultural water to nearly 40,000 people. Its main well depth is more than 360 m (1,180 ft), and its length is 45 km (28 mi).
• The Eupalinian aqueduct on the island of Samos (North Aegean, Greece). Built in 520 BC by the ancient Greek engineer Eupalinos of Megara. Eupalinos organised the work so that the tunnel was begun from both sides of Mount Kastro. The two teams advanced simultaneously and met in the middle with excellent accuracy, something that was extremely difficult in that time. The aqueduct was of utmost defensive importance, since it ran underground, and it was not easily found by an enemy who could otherwise cut off the water supply to Pythagoreion, the ancient capital of Samos. The tunnel's existence was recorded by Herodotus (as was the mole and harbour, and the third wonder of the island, the great temple to Hera, thought by many to be the largest in the Greek world). The precise location of the tunnel was only re-established in the 19th century by German archaeologists. The tunnel proper is 1,030 m long (3,380 ft) and visitors can still enter it Eupalinos tunnel.
• The Via Flaminia, an important Roman road, penetrated the Furlo pass in the Apennines through a tunnel which emperor Vespasian had ordered built in 76-77. A modern road, the SS 3 Flaminia, still uses this tunnel, which had a precursor dating back to the 3rd century BC; remnants of this earlier tunnel (one of the first road tunnels) are also still visible.
• Sapperton Canal Tunnel on the Thames and Severn Canal in England, dug through hills, which opened in 1789, was 3.5 km (2.2 mi) long and allowed boat transport of coal and other goods. Above it runs the Sapperton Long Tunnel which carries the "Golden Valley" railway line between Swindon and Gloucester.
• The 1796 Stoddart Tunnel in Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire is reputed to be the oldest rail tunnel in the world. Rail wagons were horse-drawn.
• A tunnel was created for the first true steam locomotive, from Penydarren to Abercynon. The Penydarren locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick. The locomotive made the historic journey from Penydarren to Abercynon in 1804. Part of this tunnel can still be seen at Pentrebach, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. This is arguably the oldest railway tunnel in the world, for self-propelled steam engines on rails.
• The Montgomery Bell Tunnel in Tennessee, a 88 m (289 ft), high water diversion tunnel, 4.50-×-2.45 m high (15-×-8.0 ft), to power a water wheel, was built by slave labour in 1819, being the first full-scale tunnel in North America.
• Crown Street Station, Liverpool, 1829. Built by George Stephenson, a single track tunnel 291 yd long (266 m) was bored from Edge Hill to Crown Street to serve the world's first passenger railway station. The station was abandoned in 1836 being too far from Liverpool city centre, with the area converted for freight use. Closed down in 1972, the tunnel is disused. However it is the oldest rail tunnel running under streets in the world. [1]
• The 1.26 mile (2.03 km) 1829 Wapping Tunnel in Liverpool, England, was the first rail tunnel bored under a metropolis. Currently disused since 1972. Having two tracks, the tunnel runs from Edge Hill in the east of the city to the south end Liverpool docks being used only for freight. The tunnel is still in excellent condition and is being considered for reuse by Merseyrail rapid transit rail system, with maybe an underground station cut into the tunnel. The river portal is opposite the new Liverpool Arena being ideal for a serving station. If reused it will be the oldest used underground rail tunnel in the world and oldest part of any underground metro system.
• 1836, Lime St Station tunnel, Liverpool. A two track rail tunnel, 1.13 miles (1,811 m) long was bored under a metropolis from Edge Hill in the east of the city to Lime Street. In the 1880s the tunnel was converted to a deep cutting four tracks wide. The only occurrence of a tunnel being removed. A very short section of the original tunnel still exists at Edge Hill station making this the oldest rail tunnel in the world still in use, and the oldest in use under a street, albeit only one street and one building.
• Box Tunnel in England, which opened in 1841, was the longest railway tunnel in the world at the time of construction. It was dug and has a length of 2.9 km (1.8 mi).
• The 0.75 mile long 1842 Prince of Wales Tunnel, in Shildon near Darlington, England, is the oldest sizable tunnel in the world still in use under a settlement.
• The Thames Tunnel, built by Marc Isambard Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened in 1843, was the first underwater tunnel and the first to use a tunnelling shield. Originally used as a foot-tunnel, it was a part of the East London Line of the London Underground until 2007, being the oldest section of the system. From 2010 the tunnel becomes a part of the London Overground system.
• The 2.07 miles (3.34 km) Victoria Tunnel in Liverpool, opened in 1848, was bored under a metropolis. Initially used only for rail freight and later freight and passengers serving the Liverpool ship liner terminal, the tunnel runs from Edge Hill in the east of the city to the north end Liverpool docks. Used until 1972 it is still in excellent condition, being considered for reuse by the Merseyrail rapid transit rail system. Stations being cut into the tunnel are being considered. Also, reuse by a monorail system from the proposed Liverpool Waters redevelopment of Liverpool's Central Docks has been proposed.
• The vertex tunnel of the Semmering railway, the first alpine tunnel, was opened in 1848 and was 1,431 metres long. It permitted the rail traffic between Vienna, the capital of Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Trieste, its port.
• In 1854 was opened the Giovi Rail Tunnel through the Appennini Mounts, linking the capital city of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Turin, to its port, Genoa. The tunnel was 3,250 metres long.
• The oldest underground sections of the London Underground were built using the cut-and-cover method in the 1860s and opened in January 1863. What are now the Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City and Circle lines were the first to prove the success of a metro or subway system.
• On June 18, 1868, the Central Pacific Railroad's 1,659-foot (506 m) Summit Tunnel (Tunnel #6) at Donner Pass in the California Sierra Nevada mountains was opened permitting the establishment of the commercial mass transportation of passengers and freight over the Sierras for the first time. It remained in daily use until 1993 when the Southern Pacific Railroad closed it in favor of sending all rail traffic through the 10,322-foot (3,146 m) long Tunnel #41 (aka "The Big Hole") built a mile to the south in 1925.
• In 1870, after fourteen years of works, was completed the Fréjus Rail Tunnel between France and Italy, the second oldest Alpine tunnel, 13.7 kilometres long. At that time it was the longest in the world.
• The third Alpine tunnel, the Gotthard Rail Tunnel opened in 1882 and was the longest rail tunnel in the world, measuring 15 kilometres.
• The 1882 Col de Tende Road Tunnel, at 3,182 metres long, was one of the first long road tunnels under a pass, running between France and Italy.
• The Mersey Railway tunnel opened in 1886 running from Liverpool to Birkenhead under the River Mersey. The Mersey Railway was the world's first deep-level underground railway. By 1892 the extensions on land from Birkenhead Park station to Liverpool Central Low level station gave a tunnel 3.12 miles (5029 m) in length. The under river section is 0.75 miles in length, being the longest underwater tunnel in world in January 1886.
• The rail Severn Tunnel was opened in late 1886, at 4 miles 624 yd (7,008 m) long, although only 2¼ miles (3.62 km) of the tunnel is actually under the river. The tunnel replaced the Mersey Railway tunnel's longest under water record, which it held for less than a year.
• James Greathead, in constructing the City & South London Railway tunnel beneath the Thames, opened in 1890, brought together three key elements of tunnel construction under water: 1) shield method of excavation; 2) permanent cast iron tunnel lining; 3) construction in a compressed air environment to inhibit water flowing through soft ground material into the tunnel heading.^[12]
• St. Clair Tunnel, also opened later in 1890, linked the elements of the Greathead tunnels on a larger scale.^[12]
• In 1906 opened the fourth Alpine tunnel, the Simplon Tunnel, linking Paris to Milan. It is 19,700 metres long; so, it has been the longest tunnel in the world until 1982.
• The 1927 Holland Tunnel was the first underwater tunnel designed for automobiles. This fact required a novel ventilation system.

See also the rapid transit history.

Longest[link]

• The Delaware Aqueduct in New York USA is the longest tunnel, of any type, in the world at 137 km (85 mi). It is drilled through solid rock.
• The Gotthard Base Tunnel will be the longest rail tunnel in the world at 57 km (35 mi). It will be totally completed in 2017.
• The Seikan Tunnel in Japan is the longest undersea rail tunnel in the world at 53.9 km (33.5 mi), of which 23.3 km (14.5 mi) is under the sea.
• The Channel Tunnel between France and the United Kingdom under the English Channel is the second-longest, with a total length of 50 km (31 mi), of which 39 km (24 mi) is under the sea.
• The Lötschberg Base Tunnel opened in June 2007 in Switzerland was the longest land rail tunnel, with a total of 34.5 km (21.4 mi).
• The Lærdal Tunnel in Norway from Lærdal to Aurland is the world's longest road tunnel, intended for cars and similar vehicles, at 24.5 km (15.2 mi).
• The Zhongnanshan Tunnel in People's Republic of China opened in January 2007 is the world's second longest highway tunnel and the longest road tunnel in Asia, at 18 km (11 mi).
• The longest canal tunnel is the Rove Tunnel in France, over 7.12 km (4.42 mi) long.

Notable[link]

• The Central Artery Tunnel in Boston carries approximately 200,000 vehicles/day.
• The Fredhälls Tunnel in Stockholm, Sweden, and the New Elbe Tunnel in Hamburg, Germany, both with around 150,000 vehicles a day, two of the most trafficked tunnels in the world.
• Gerrards Cross tunnel in Britain is notable in that it was built over a railway cutting that was dug in the early part of the 20th Century. Thus, arguably, making it the tunnel longest in construction by the cut and cover method. Now completed, a branch of the Tesco supermarket chain occupies the space above the railway tunnel. During construction, a portion of the tunnel collapsed when the soil cover was added.
• Williamson's tunnels in Liverpool, built by a wealthy eccentric are probably the largest underground folly in the world.
• New York City Water Tunnel No. 3 [2], started in 1970, has an expected completion date of 2020.
• The Chicago Deep Tunnel Project is a network of 175 km (109 mi) of tunnels designed to reduce flooding in the Chicago area. Started in the mid 1970s, the project is due to be completed in 2019.
• Moffat Tunnel in Colorado straddles the Continental Divide. The tunnel is 6.2 mi (10.0 km) long and at 9,239 ft (2,816 m) above sea level is the highest railroad tunnel in the United States.
• The Fenghuoshan tunnel on Qinghai-Tibet railway is the world's highest railway tunnel, about 4,905 m (16,093 ft) above sea level.
• The La Linea Tunnel in Colombia, will be (2013) the longest, 8.58 km (5.33 mi), mountain tunnel in South America. It crosses beneath a mountain at 2,500 m (8,202.1 ft) above sea level with six lanes and it has a parallel emergency tunnel. The tunnel is subject to serious groundwater pressure. The tunnel, which is currently under construction, will link Bogotá and its urban area with the coffee-growing region and with the main port on the Colombian Pacific coast.
• The Honningsvåg Tunnel (4.443 km (2.76 mi) long) on European route E69 in Norway is the world's northernmost road tunnel, except for mines (which exist on Svalbard).
• The Eiksund Tunnel [3] on national road Rv 653 in Norway is the world's deepest subsea road tunnel (7,776 m long, with deepest point at -287 metres below the sea level, opened in feb. 2008)

Other uses[link]

Excavation techniques, as well as the construction of underground bunkers and other habitable areas, are often associated with military use during armed conflict, or civilian responses to threat of attack. The use of tunnels for mining is called drift mining. One of the strangest uses of a tunnel was for the storage of chemical weapons^[13][14] [4]. The actual usage of erdstall tunnels is unknown but theories connect it to a rebirth ritual.

Natural tunnels[link]

• Lava tubes are partially empty, cave-like conduits underground, formed during volcanic eruptions by flowing and cooling lava.
• Natural Tunnel State Park (Virginia, USA) features an 850-foot (259 m) natural tunnel, really a limestone cave, that has been used as a railroad tunnel since 1890.
• Punarjani Guha Kerala, India. Hindus believe that crawling through the tunnel (which they believe was created by a Hindu god) from one end to the other will wash away all of one’s sins and thus attain rebirth, although only men are permitted to crawl through the cave.
• Small "snow tunnels" are created by voles, chipmunks and other rodents for protection and access to food sources. For more information regarding tunnels built by animals, see Burrow

Temporary way[link]

During construction of a tunnel it is often convenient to install a temporary railway particularly to remove spoil. This temporary railway is often narrow gauge so that it can be double track, which facilitates the operation of empty and loaded trains at the same time. The temporary way is replaced by the permanent way at completion, thus explaining the term Perway.

Enlargement[link]

The vehicles using a tunnel can outgrow it, requiring replacement or enlargement. The original single line Gib Tunnel near Mittagong was replaced with a double line tunnel, with the original tunnel used for growing mushrooms.^{[citation needed]} The Rhyndaston Tunnel was enlarged using a borrowed Tunnel Boring Machine so as to be able to take ISO containers.

The 1836 Lime Street two track 1 mile tunnel from Edge Hill to Lime Street in Liverpool was totally removed, apart from a short 50 metre section at Edge Hill. Four tracks were required. The tunnel was converted into a very deep 4 track open cutting. However, short larger 4 track tunnels were left in some parts of the run. Train services were not interrupted as the work progressed. Photos of the work in progress: [5] [6] There are other occurrences of tunnels being replaced by open cuts, for example, the Auburn Tunnel.

Floor Lowering[link]

Tunnels can also be enlarged by lowering the floor.

Accidents[link]

• Clayton Tunnel rail crash - 1861 - confusion about block signals
• Balvano train disaster - 1944 -
• 1996 Channel Tunnel fire - 1996

See also[link]

• Megaproject
• Tree tunnel

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Railway Tunnels in Queensland by Brian Webber, 1997, ISBN 0-909937-33-8

Further reading[link]

• Sullivan, Walter. Progress In Technology Revives Interest In Great Tunnels, New York Times, June 24, 1986. Retrieved 15 August 2010.

External links[link]

• Trans Global Highway and proposed tunnels.
• Royal Engineers Museum British Army First World War Tunnelling.
• Directory of the world's longest tunnels by category
• ITA-AITES International Tunnelling Association
• Tunnels & Tunnelling International magazine
• Project Triton - Trentino Research & Innovation for Tunnel Monitoring at "DISI" (Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Scienza dell'Informazione) (University of Trento) Italy
• USACE
• Pipe Jacking