The longest car tunnel. The longest and deepest tunnel in the world has opened in Switzerland. The longest in Russia
Mankind began to build the first structures resembling today's tunnels back in the Stone Age and over the past years has achieved certain successes in this matter. We have selected the most remarkable ones that currently exist: get acquainted.
The first known underwater tunnel was built in ancient Babylon under the Euphrates more than two thousand years before the birth of Christ. Technologies have changed since then, but the essence has not: tunnels are still the most convenient way to separate traffic flows vertically and overcome various natural and man-made obstacles when moving people and goods. But not only them.
The longest in the world: Delaware Aqueduct (New York State, USA)
The honorary title of the longest operating tunnel in the world today is held by a structure not intended for the movement of people and goods. It supplies New York City with about 4.9 million cubic meters of fresh water daily from the Rondout Reservoir in the Catskill Mountains, that is, about half of what a metropolis of 20 million uses over the same period. The length of the tunnel is 137 kilometers with a diameter of 4.1 meters, and it runs at a depth of up to 300 m. It was built at a bad time for the United States and the entire Northern Hemisphere: work started in 1939 and ended only in 1944.
Pumping stations are used to pump water underground and through rivers. Those located in New York, like this one, look stylish, somewhat reminiscent of Palladian villas
Delaware Aqueduct (Delaware Aqueduct) Although it has been supplying the largest city in the United States with water for seven decades, it is nevertheless not problematic: it leaks. As a result of leaks, at least 140 thousand cubic meters are lost into the soil. m daily, which would be enough to provide clean drinking water to about half a million people. And it would be nice if the water just went into the ground! No, it floods buildings and fields and harms nature. To solve the problem, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection is constructing a parallel tunnel to replace the worst-damaged section of the aqueduct. The cost of repairing leaks is approaching one and a half billion dollars.
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Universal tunnel SMART (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) One of the options for using tunnels is to combat flooding by draining water. In the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, they decided to build a universal two-level tunnel SMART (Stormwater Management And Road Tunnel), through which both vehicles and water can flow during heavy rains.
Normally, the tunnel operates like a car tunnel and is used to bypass the city center (along the upper level). During heavy rains, water from the city storm drain is discharged to the lower level. And if there is a very serious threat of flooding, the tunnel is closed to car traffic and both levels are used for drainage. When the danger passes, the vehicle part can be returned to service within 48 hours. Only since the beginning of 2007, when it was opened SMART, until the summer of 2010, the tunnel saved the center of Kuala Lumpur from seven severe floods. |
Longest railway: Gotthard Base Tunnel (Switzerland)
Opening ceremony of the Gotthard Base Tunnel (Gotthard-Basistunnel) took place in Switzerland on June 1, 2016. Thus ended almost a quarter-century (the first construction work began in 1993) history of the construction of not only the longest (57 km from portal to portal), but also the deepest (up to 2450 meters of rock rises above the tunnel) railway tunnel in the world. And it cannot be said that the Gotthard Pass, which, roughly speaking, separates Italy from Germany, could not be overcome in any other way: apart from the picturesque winding path through the pass on the surface, before the opening of the GBT it was possible to use the old railway tunnel (built in 1882) or the road (1980), however, in order to get to them, both trains and motorists had to overcome many kilometers of dangerous mountain roads with dozens of sharp turns, which greatly complicated the task.
The northern portal of the Gotthard Base Tunnel is located near the town of Erstfeld at an altitude of 460 m above sea level. In this photo you can see that, in fact, we are talking about two parallel electrified tunnels with a diameter of 8.83–9.58 m. By the way, the tunnel is called the base one because it is laid at the base of the mountain range whose name it bears
Now it is possible to get from Zurich to Milan in just 2 hours 50 minutes instead of the previous 3 hours 40 minutes, and on a high-speed train traveling through the tunnel at a speed of up to 250 km/h (during testing, ICE trains even accelerated to 275 km/h) . In total, there are about 65 such trains per day - they carry about 10 thousand passengers per day, and the increase in traffic was 30% in the first 8 months of operation of the tunnel. But freight traffic is still more important - up to 260 freight trains can be carried through the tunnel per day. It was precisely for the sake of transferring cargo transportation from road to rail transport that everything was started. Construction cost approximately 10 billion Swiss francs and nine lives - that's how many of the 3,500 people who built the tunnel died during construction.
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Natural Tunnel (Virginia, USA) To lay railway tracks or a highway in the thickness of the earth, humanity does not necessarily have to chisel away at the rock for a long time and persistently - we can use what nature itself has built over millions of years. Although now the cave and its surroundings have been given the status of a protected area - a state park (Natural Tunnel State Park)- and they are equipped for the stay of numerous tourists; trains still pass through the cave tunnel, although they only transport coal from nearby mines This was done at the end of the 19th century in the American state of Virginia, by laying a railway through a natural cave made by groundwater in the thickness of limestone and dolomite. Nature created an underground structure, open at both ends, 255 meters long, up to 61 meters wide and up to 24 meters high. This is a real wonder of the world, European settlers in North America decided. This is a real tunnel - it would be a shame not to use it, their descendants-industrialists decided a couple of hundred years later, and launched freight and passenger trains through the cave. |
Longest underwater: Eurotunnel (under the English Channel between France and Great Britain)
Even if this tunnel (also known as Channel Tunnel And Le tunnel sous la Manche) would not be the current world record holder for the length of the underwater part, it should be included in our selection - for its symbolism. Opened in 1994, it embodied the almost two-century-old (the first plans for such a structure appeared in 1802) European dream of connecting the British Isles and the continent with a land line. It was built for a relatively short time, only six years, and they paid an astronomical amount even by today’s standards - about 9 billion pounds sterling (that is, 21 billion dollars at the then exchange rate), which turned out to be more than the planned 5.5 billion pounds. In any case, the project remained for quite a long time the most expensive infrastructure project in history.
On the continent, the tunnel begins in the Calais area. This photo shows how the railway tracks after the turning circle turn to the right and go towards the sea. There's a portal to Britain
As a result, we got two parallel tunnels with a diameter of 7.6 m 30 meters from each other for trains and a 4.8-meter service tunnel between them. The length of the railway part is 50 km, 37.9 of which pass under the bottom of the English Channel at a depth of 75 meters (or 115 meters below sea level).
On both sides the tunnel is connected to the high-speed rail network, thus connecting European railways with British ones. Trains run between London on one side and Paris, Brussels and Lille on the other. If you prefer to travel around Europe by car, the tunnel will help you too: you will not depend on the weather and suffer from pitching when crossing the English Channel by ferry. Instead, you can roll your car to Eurotunnel Shuttle- a 775-meter road train that will cross the strait through a tunnel in 35 minutes. True, you won’t go far on it: only to a special terminal in Nord-Pas-de-Calais or Kent: the parameters of the train are such that it is excellent for the fast and safe transportation of cars and trucks, but the train simply won’t go further.
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Between two continents: Marmaray tunnel (Istanbul, Türkiye) In terms of symbolism and significance, the Eurotunnel has a competitor - the Marmaray tunnel (Marmaray), lying under the bottom of the Bosphorus Strait and connecting the European and Asian parts of Istanbul, that is, in a sense, two continents: a 1.4-kilometer tunnel, or rather two parallel single-track tunnels for metro trains, built as part of a project to modernize the transport system of Istanbul, runs under the bottom the Bosphorus Strait at a depth of 60 meters in an earthquake-prone area and, moreover, in muddy soil and is capable of surviving an earthquake of magnitude up to 7.0.
While the tunnel was being built, in the ground on the European shore of the strait they discovered the remains of the harbor of Theodosius, the main port of ancient Constantinople, with a mass of ancient and medieval artifacts, including the remains of Byzantine galleys discovered for the first time, and then traces of the first human settlement on the territory of modern Istanbul, which is supposed to , arose around the 7th millennium BC. |
Deepest: Eiksund Tunnel (Norway)
Speaking about tunnels laid under the seabed, one cannot fail to mention Eiksundtunnelen. In comparison with the previous ones, it is very small - 7.8 km long - and, moreover, it is intended for vehicle traffic and connects not the two largest countries in Europe, but small villages on islands in the western Norwegian province of Mere og Romsdal with the continent. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is laid at a depth of up to 287 meters below sea level, and from the bottom of the Storfjord to the tunnel in some places there is up to 50 meters of rock.
The opening ceremony of the tunnel took place on February 23, 2008 - five years after the start of construction. The latter, by the way, was cheaper than planned - an amazing thing for infrastructure projects
The Eiksund tunnel is only part of the road complex, which also includes two smaller tunnels and a 405-meter bridge. The total population in the villages served by the complex is about 40 thousand people.
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Tunnels high in the mountains The purpose of a tunnel, as is commonly thought, is to go deep underground. However, you can climb underground even at high altitudes above sea level. This is done, for example, by one of the highest tunnels in the world - the Eisenhower Road Tunnel (or, officially, the Eisenhower and Edwin Johnson Memorial Tunnel, Eisenhower-Edwin C. Johnson Memorial Tunnel) 2.72 km long, cut under the American Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, at an altitude of 3357–3401 m (west and east entrance respectively) to facilitate highway traffic I-70. This is what the eastern portal of the Eisenhower Tunnel looks like. There is a great ski resort right above the tunnel at Loveland Pass. The Eisenhower Tunnel's competitor in the fight for the title of world record holder is the railway tunnel under Mount Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps. It, along with underground stations and an open area, was completed by 1912 after 16 years of hard work. The tunnel is 7 km long (and the entire line is 9.3 km), the maximum height above sea level is 3454 m with a height difference of 1400 m. It is intended for pleasure trips along a narrow-gauge cogwheel railway line to the picturesque Jungfraujoch pass. It is noteworthy that the record for the number of passengers per day, recorded on June 1, 2000, was 8,148 people. No wonder: the cost of a ticket for an adult starts from 113 francs (about 7,000 rubles) - compare with the free Eisenhower Tunnel, through which about 30 thousand cars pass a day. |
Longest road road: Lærdal Tunnel (Norway)
Another record-breaking tunnel was built in Norway - Lerdalsky (Lærdalstunnelen) 24.51 kilometers long, it is currently the world's longest road tunnel. It is located about five hours by car along winding roads from Eiksund, connects the communes of Aurland and Laerdal in the province of Sogn og Fjordane and is part of the highway between the country's two largest cities - Oslo and Bergen, the introduction of which saved the Norwegians from having to overcome the route between cities by ferry or along mountain roads, which are especially inhospitable in winter and in bad weather.
While the tunnel itself is usually illuminated with white lamps, the cave sections dividing it into sections are illuminated in blue and yellow. This lighting is designed to imitate the dawn sky and is designed to reduce driver fatigue
Although the distance of approximately 25 km may not seem like much (only 20 minutes at the speed limit), the creators of the tunnel made sure that drivers travel through it as smoothly as possible - in particular, so that they do not fall asleep at the wheel and do not experience an attack of claustrophobia. To do this, the tunnel is divided into three large caves where you can stop or make a U-turn. It is noteworthy that in the same province they are seriously thinking about the construction of another tunnel - the Stadsky shipping tunnel, designed so that ships, including ferries, now bypassing the peninsula of the same name, could easily overcome one of the most dangerous sections of the sea off the coast of Western Norway. The construction of the tunnel, about 2 km long, 49 m high, 36 m wide and 12 m deep, is planned to begin this year or next, and will be completed in 2023. When and if the tunnel is built, Around the World will certainly talk about it - stay with us.
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The longest in Russia The longest tunnel in Russia, although much shorter in length than those described above, is no less impressive: 15 kilometers 343 meters through the granite of the North Muya Range in Buryatia took 26 years. This is not surprising: the builders had to contend with quicksand under pressure of up to 34 atmospheres, faults and other geological difficulties, as well as harsh climate, radon and background radiation and lack of funding - mining work began in 1977, and the first train passed through the tunnel only in 2001, thus, the project survived both the crisis and the collapse of the USSR, and the crisis of the early 1990s. The commissioning of the tunnel made it possible to establish non-stop movement of heavy freight trains along the BAM, which previously had to be disbanded and carried out in parts through a detour along steep avalanche-prone routes and viaducts. Travel time has been reduced on this section from two hours to 20–25 minutes. |
Photo: Jim.henderson / Wikimedia Commons, Emran Kassim / Flickr, Zacharie Grossen / Wikimedia Commons, Virginia State Parks / Wikimedia Commons, Philippe TURPIN / Getty Images, T.Müller / Wikimedia Commons, Patrick Pelster / Wikimedia Commons, Svein-Magne Tunli / Wikimedia Commons
March 1, 1880 and the construction of the railway was completed tunnel at the pass Saint Gotthard in Switzerland - the most complex engineering structure of those times, which became a symbol of the subjugation of nature by man. And today we will talk about several the world's greatest and most significant tunnels- from the already mentioned Saint Gotthard in the Alps to the Marmaray line under the Bosphorus, which opened in October 2013, each of which marked a new milestone in the development of their country.
Gotthard tunnel. Switzerland
The Saint Gotthard pass in the Alps is known in Russia thanks to the feat of the commander Alexander Suvorov, who crossed it with great difficulty and losses in the fall of 1799. And in 1880, it became much easier to overcome the mountains in this area, because the construction of a 15-kilometer railway tunnel, one of the most famous such structures in the world, was completed there. It significantly simplified the movement of goods across Europe, and also became one of the keys to the economic well-being of Switzerland.
In 1980, not far from the century-old railway tunnel, a 16.9-kilometer-long road tunnel was opened. And now construction is underway on an even larger-scale structure at the Gotthard Pass - a 57-kilometer railway tunnel, which, when commissioned in 2017, will become the longest in the world.
Seikan Tunnel. Japan
In 1954, a tragic event occurred in Japan - during an unprecedented storm in the Sangar Strait between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, five passenger ferries sank, which led to the death of more than a thousand people. And this was far from the first such disaster in this place - ships sailing between the two largest Japanese islands died regularly for centuries. To finally solve this problem, the Japanese government decided to build a tunnel under the strait.
Work on this structure began in 1964 and lasted more than twenty years. Opened in 1988, the 54-kilometer Seikan became the longest railway tunnel in the world and still holds this record.
In 1988, about 3 million passengers used the services of the Sangar tunnel, in 1999 – 2 million, and in 2009 – a little more than a million. For comparison, the annual volume of passenger traffic between Honshu and Hokkaido is tens of times greater. But as a freight road, this tunnel has no worthy competitors.
Eurotunnel. France-UK
It’s hard to believe, but the idea of building a tunnel between France and Great Britain appeared in the late eighteenth - early nineteenth centuries, and Napoleon Bonaparte himself acted as the “customer” of the project. But real progress in this direction began only after the Second World War, and construction itself started only in December 1987.
The grand opening of the Eurotunnel took place on May 6, 1994, with the participation of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and French President Jacques Chirac. The tunnels (three in total: two transport and one technical) are used as railway tunnels - high-speed trains TGV Eurostar and Eurotunnel Shuttle run through them in both directions, connecting London with Paris and Brussels. The Eurotunnel accounts for 67% of passenger traffic between France and England.
Laerdal tunnel. Norway
Built in Norway in 1995-2000, the Lærdal Tunnel can be called the most beautiful such engineering structure on the planet. In addition, this is the longest road tunnel in the world, because its length is 24.5 kilometers.
In order to at least slightly diversify the route of progress and relieve stress for drivers, the architects who worked on the Lärdal Tunnel divided it into four approximately equal parts with three artificial caves. Each of these grottoes has its own lighting color, which gives this engineering object originality and beauty. You can also stop in these caves, park in special pits, and rest a little.
Oresund Bridge. Denmark, Sweden
It is not entirely logical that the list of the greatest tunnels in the world includes a bridge connecting two Scandinavian countries - Denmark and Norway. But there is no mistake in this fact, because out of the almost 12 kilometers of the length of this structure, 4050 meters are underground.
The architects of the Oresund Bridge took such an extraordinary solution for the reason that it is in this place that the glide path of planes heading to Copenhagen Airport passes, and it cannot be blocked. And ships sailing through the Öresund Strait also need space for successful navigation.
Severomuysky tunnel. Russia
On December 5, 2003, a historical event for all of Russia took place in Buryatia - the Severomuysky tunnel, 15 kilometers 343 meters long, was opened there. It became not only the longest in Russia, but also marked the end of the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, the legendary BAM - one of the greatest construction projects of Soviet times.
The construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline began back in 1938, in 1974 it was declared an all-Union shock Komsomol construction project, they began writing songs and making films about it, and was completed to its intended extent only in 2003. During the creation of the BAM, 10 tunnels were dug, the largest and Severomuisky became an important one.
Marmaray. Türkiye
In October 2013, an event occurred that humanity had dreamed about for centuries, but did not believe in the reality of its implementation until the very last moment. The Marmaray railway tunnel was opened in Istanbul, connecting the European and Asian shores of the Bosphorus Strait.
After its opening, Marmaray was integrated into the Istanbul metro system as a separate line. It is also planned to be used for transcontinental freight and passenger transport - the tunnel will become part of a global railway project to create a single track infrastructure from the UK to South Korea.
The relief of the earth's surface is not perfectly flat, but is almost always complex, so when laying roads it is almost impossible to do without tunnels. The prototypes of tunnels in ancient times were mines; with the help of this military stratagem one could sneak behind the enemy's back unnoticed and fall on his shoulders. Today's tunnels, for the most part, serve completely different purposes. There are a variety of tunnels, differing in length, location and structure. What is currently the longest tunnel in the world?
10. Laerdal Tunnel, Norway (24,510 m)
The Trans-Siberian Railway or the Great Siberian Route, which connects the Russian capital Moscow with Vladivostok, until recently bore the honorary title of...
In this case, we are talking about a road tunnel that shortens the route from the municipality of Laerdal to another municipality of Aurland (both in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Western Norway). The tunnel is part of the European highway E16, connecting Oslo with Bergen. Construction of this tunnel began in 1995 and was completed in 2000. At that time, it became the longest road tunnel in the world, surpassing the famous Gotthard road tunnel by as much as 8 km. Above the tunnel there are mountains with an average height of about 1600 meters.
The Lärdal Tunnel has a unique feature - three large-volume artificial grottoes are chosen in it at the same distance from each other. These grottoes divide the tunnel itself into 4 approximately equal sections. This is not a whim of the architects, but the purpose of the grottoes is to relieve fatigue from drivers driving for a long time in completely monotonous tunnel conditions, and here they can stop and rest.
9. Iwate-Ichinohe, Japan (25,810 m)
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The Japanese tunnel connecting the capital with the city of Aomori, at the time of its opening in 2002, it was the longest Japanese railway tunnel until it was overtaken by the Lötschberg tunnel. This tunnel is located 545 kilometers from Tokyo, halfway between Hachinohe and Morioka, and the Chohoku express trains run through it. We started thinking about its construction in 1988, and started it in 1991. The structure was ready for operation in 2000, but the line began operating only in 2002. The tunnel goes down a maximum of 200 meters.
8. Hakkoda, Japan (26,455 m)
The Hakkoda railway tunnel is only a little longer than the previous one. He was a kind of pioneer - before him, there were no long tunnels in the world through which trains could simultaneously move in different directions.
7. Taihangshan, China (27,848 m)
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In 2007, a new Taihangshan tunnel was put into operation in China, passing through the thickness of the mountain range of the same name. Before the construction of the New Guan Jiao, it was the longest Chinese tunnel. It became an element of the high-speed railway that connected the capital of the eastern province of Hebei, Shijiach-Zhuang, with the capital of the adjacent Shanxi province from the west, the city of Taiyuan. If previously it took 6 hours to get from one city to another, now an hour is enough.
6. Guadarrama, Spain (28,377 m)
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In the same 2007, but in Spain, the longest tunnel in the country, Guadarrama, was opened, which connected the capital of the country, Madrid, with Valladolid. It began to be built in 2002, so it is obvious that this was done at a fairly fast pace. This is a rather complex technical structure, which also contains two separate tunnels. Thanks to this, trains run along it simultaneously in different directions. It is especially worth noting that high-speed trains of the AVE system are used here. After the launch of the tunnel, it became possible to get from one city to another in just a few minutes. This was especially liked by tourists, who began to visit Valladolid from the capital more often.
Large and very large objects, animals, people have always attracted people, and we are equally interested in man-made objects, for example, the Great China...
5. New Guan Jiao, China (32,645 m)
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This is China's longest railway tunnel. At the same time, being located, as befits an underground tunnel, it is located at a very decent height above sea level (from 3324 meters to 3381 meters). And all because it is part of the second line of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, laid in the Guan Jiao Mountains of the Chinese province of Qinghai. In fact, there are two separate one-way tunnels here. This tunnel took 7 years to build, and it was put into operation at the very end of 2014. Trains are capable of rushing through these tunnels at a speed of 160 km/h.
4. Lötschberg, Switzerland (34,577 m)
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The Lötschberg railway tunnel is located on the line of the same name passing through the Alps, and it is located 400 meters deeper than the Lötschberg road tunnel. Passenger and freight trains travel through this one of the world's longest land tunnels. It passes under cities such as Bern, Frutigen, Valais and Raron. This is a fairly new tunnel, because it was completed only in 2006, and already in June of the following year it was officially opened. The most modern drilling technologies were used during its excavation, so it was possible to break through it in less than two years. Now over 20 thousand Swiss people use it every week, trying to quickly get to the thermal resorts in Valais.
The arrival of Lötschberg significantly reduced traffic congestion in the area, since previously trucks and trucks had to bypass Switzerland, making a large circle just from Valais to Bern. It is curious that in the tunnel there is a source of hot underground water, which the Swiss also do not waste, but use it to heat the greenhouse, where tropical fruits grow thanks to this.
3. Eurotunnel, France/UK (50,450 m)
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This Channel Tunnel is a double-track railway tunnel that runs 39 kilometers under the English Channel. Thanks to him, the island of Great Britain was connected to the continent by rail. Since then, it has become possible to board a train in Paris and be in London in two and a quarter hours. The train stays in the tunnel itself for 20-35 minutes.
The grand opening of the tunnel took place on May 6, 1994. It was attended by the leaders of two countries - French President Francois Mitterrand and Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. The Eurotunnel holds the record for underwater tunnels and is also the longest international tunnel. Its work is managed by the Eurostar company. The American Society of Civil Engineers was full of compliments and even compared the Eurotunnel to one of the seven modern wonders of the world.
2. Seikan, Japan (53,850 m)
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This incredibly long Japanese railway tunnel also has an underwater section that is 23.3 kilometers long. It goes 240 meters underground, resulting in 100 meters below the seabed. The tunnel passes under the Sangar Strait and connects Aomori Prefecture (Honshu Island) and the island of Hokkaido. It is part of the Kaikyo and Hokkaido Shinkansen of the local railway company.
In length it is second only to the Gotthard Tunnel, and in terms of its location under the seabed it is the leader in the world. The name of the tunnel contains the first hieroglyphs of the names of the cities that it connects - Amori and Hakodate, they are just pronounced differently in Japanese. The Seikan Tunnel became the second underwater railway tunnel after the Kammon Tunnel in Japan, and it connects the islands of Kyushu and Honshu under the Kammon Strait.
Hydroelectric power plants, or HPPs, generate electricity using the energy of falling water. Hydroelectric power stations most often appear on the largest rivers, which...
1. Gotthard Tunnel, Switzerland (57,091 m)
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This railway tunnel, dug in the Swiss Alps, when adding its own length with the length of pedestrian and service passages, will stretch for 153.4 kilometers. At the northern end it exits near the village of Erstfeld, and the southern exit is located near the village of Bodio. The construction of the eastern part was completed in October 2010, and the western part in March 2011, after which it became the longest railway tunnel in the world.
Thanks to its construction, trans-Alpine rail transport became possible, and north-west Italy was able to switch from more polluting road transport to cleaner and cheaper rail transport. Travel time from Zurich to Milan has been reduced by almost an hour. The tunnel was opened in June 2016. The company that controlled its construction, Alp Transit Gotthard, handed it over to the Swiss Federal Railways in fully operational condition in December of the same year, and on December 11 its commercial operation began.
The other day, the official opening of a tunnel through the Alps to Switzerland took place, the construction of which took 17 years. The Gotthard Base Tunnel is 57 kilometers long, making it the longest in the world. Moreover, since in some places the maximum height of the mountains above the tunnel is 2300 meters, it is not only the longest, but also the deepest in the world.
Europe's largest rail project is the Crossrail high-speed rail system, but the tunnel portion is only 42 kilometers long. The Gotthard Base Tunnel is, in turn, only 3 kilometers longer than Japan's Seikan Tunnel and 7 kilometers longer than the Eurotunnel between the UK and France, both of which carry rail passenger traffic. In addition, among all tunnels of any type in the world, Gotthard now ranks 9th.
If you add up all the actually used branches and forks that make up the Gotthard Base Tunnel, then its total length, including various service forks and transitions, will be 152 kilometers. In addition, the entire length of the tunnel lies on one level, there are no ascents or descents.
The original idea for this tunnel dates back 68 years, but plans have been rewritten many times for countless reasons. When the construction was finally approved, up to 2,400 people worked at the sites during rush hour. During the entire construction period, 9 people died.
Engineers and miners had to cut through many different types of rock, including granite and sedimentary rocks. About 80 percent of the work was done with huge drilling machines. The laying of the remaining 20 percent was carried out using explosive methods. A total of 31.1 million tons of rock were mined.
When laying the continuous sub-rail began, the task required the efforts of 125 workers who worked in three shifts over three years. As a result, 131,000 cubic meters of concrete, 290 kilometers of under-rail material and 380,000 cross beams (struts) were used.
The tunnel connects the commune of Erstfeld with the town of Bodio. Every day, 325 trains will pass through it, 260 of which will be freight (moving at a speed of 160 km/h), and the remaining 65 will be passenger trains (moving at a speed of 200 km/h). Passenger train speeds are expected to increase over time, with 250 km/h eventually becoming the standard. This will reduce travel between Zurich and Lugano, which are located in the northern and southern parts of Erstfeld and Bodio respectively, by approximately 45 minutes.
Tunnels have always been considered irreplaceable structures necessary for safe passage or passage underground. But if earlier such architectural masterpieces helped people quietly penetrate enemy territory, today their construction is connected with other goals. Moreover, they differ from each other in structure, location and length. We decided to tell you today what the longest tunnels in the world are.
The longest Japanese tunnel
The longest railway tunnel to date is located in the Land of the Rising Sun. It is called Seikan, which means “Majestic Spectacle” in Japanese. The tunnel is quite impressive in size and even has a part hidden under water. Thus, its total length is 53.85 km, and the underwater fragment corresponds to a length of 23.3 km. That is why, in addition to the title of one of the largest land structures, Seikan also has another title - the longest underwater tunnel in the world.
The structure itself, which took at least 40 years to build, was erected in 1988. It contains two stations. However, despite the power of the building, Seikan is currently not used as often as before. According to analysts, this is due to an increase in railway fares.
Seikan is a tunnel whose depth is 240 m. This marvelous creation of man is located under the famous. According to the designers, the tunnel unites Hokkaido.
Few people know that the original impetus that led to the creation of this giant was a typhoon, as a result of which 5 passenger ferries were wrecked. As a result of this disaster, more than 1,150 tourists, including crew members, died on board just one of them.
The longest and most land connection in the world
The longest tunnels in the world can be divided into the following types:
- aboveground;
- underground;
- automobile, or road;
- railway;
- underwater.
Lamberg, once built in Switzerland, is considered one of the longest above-ground tunnels. Its length is 34 km. Trains can easily travel along it, sometimes reaching speeds of 200 km/h. It is noteworthy that this structure helps Swiss travelers arrive in one of the most popular resort areas of the country - Valle - in a couple of hours. According to experienced tourists, this is where numerous thermal springs are located.
It is interesting that, in addition to its main task, Lamberg, like the other longest tunnels in the world, also performs a number of others. In particular, near the building itself there are warm ones that help to heat Tropenhaus Frutigen - a nearby greenhouse and tropical crops growing on its territory.
One of the largest automobile subways
The longest road tunnel in the world is Lerdal. This 24.5 km long structure is a kind of connecting bridge between the municipalities of Airland and Laerdal, located in western Norway. Moreover, the Lärdal tunnel is considered a continuation of the famous E16 highway, which is located between Bergen and Oslo.
Construction of the famous tunnel began in mid-1995, and it ended closer to 2000. From that moment on, the structure was recognized as one of the longest automobile subways, leaving behind the famous Gotthard Tunnel by as much as 8 km.
Interestingly, the construction passes through mountains whose height is above 1600 m. Thanks to the precise calculations of the architects, experts managed to reduce the load on drivers moving through the tunnel. And this was achieved by creating three additional grottoes, equidistant from each other. At the same time, these artificial caves divide the free space under the building into four long sections. This is such an unusual and longest tunnel in the world.
Third longest railway tunnel
The Eurotunnel is considered the third longest among other subways passing through railway tracks. This structure runs under the English Channel and unites Great Britain with part of continental Europe. With its help, anyone can travel from Paris to London in just a couple of hours. The train remains inside the underground pipe for an average of 20-35 minutes.
The grand opening of the Eurotunnel took place in May 1994. Despite the fact that a lot of money was spent on the construction of this underground corridor, the world community recognized it as a miraculous masterpiece. Therefore, the structure was classified as one of the modern wonders of the world. According to preliminary estimates, this longest tunnel in the world will become self-sustaining only after 1000 years.
Longest tunnel in the Alps
Another incredible underground corridor that has not lost its position for over half a century is the Simplon Tunnel. It is he who is considered the most successful link between the city of Domodossola (Italy) and Brig (Switzerland). In addition, the building itself has a convenient geographical location, as it crosses the famous Orient Express route and touches one of the lines in the Paris-Istanbul direction.
Incredibly, the Simplon Tunnel has its own history. These walls remember a lot, for example, the fact that during the Second World War the entrance and exit from it were mined. However, an unauthorized explosion was avoided thanks to the help of local partisans. Currently, the subway consists of two portals 19803 and 19823 m long. Now you know where the longest tunnel in the world is.
Unfinished “monster” in the Alps
In the Alps there is also an unfinished one which is called a real monster of modern architectural buildings. This titanium, whose length is about 57 km, is comfortably located in friendly Switzerland. According to the project developers themselves, the main goal of the tunnel is the safe passage of goods and passengers through the Alps. In addition, it can be used to reduce the three-hour journey from Zurich to Milan to two hours and fifty minutes.
And although the Gotthard Tunnel is not yet finished, it is already breaking records for the amount of money spent. As reported in one foreign publication, to date the construction of the underground corridor has cost its owners $10.3 billion. The opening of one of the longest railway tunnels is planned for 2017.
The longest tunnels in the world: undersea connection between Japan and South Korea
The South Korean government, together with the Japanese, has developed a plan to build a tunnel 182 km long. This decision was made in order to increase trade turnover and speed up transport connections between the two countries. This project, according to experts, will be grandiose. And although its construction is just beginning, developers, engineers and architects have already had to face a lot of problems. In particular, it is not yet clear how the rescue system will work if a random accident suddenly occurs.
The longest and most expensive tunnel in the world
The longest road tunnel, where you can see eight lanes of the highway at once, is considered the Great Boston Tunnel. However, its amazing structure and design undoubtedly pale in comparison to the amount that the customers of this building had to pay.
According to preliminary data, the total budget spent on the construction of the tunnel exceeded $14.6 billion. But the contractors were unable to meet this amount, so additional daily costs amounted to about $3 million. More than 150 modern cranes worked during the construction of the Great Boston Tunnel. Moreover, more than 5,000 employees participated in the process itself.
The longest tunnel in all of Spain
Spain also boasts Guadarama, a long land tunnel that connects Valladolid with Madrid. Its length is only 28.37 km. The opening of this building took place in 2007. Later they started talking about Guadarama as the largest architectural work in Spain.
Large underground tunnel in Japan
Japan is famous for its underground and above-ground buildings, including the large Hakkoda railway tunnel. Its total length is about 26.5 km. Many years have passed since the opening of this building until now. But it continues to be one of the most unique spacious passages, along which two trains can pass at once.