In association with:

Linking nations deep under the sea

By Matthew Knight for CNN

Adjust font size:

(CNN) -- Not since the last Ice Age, over 8,000 years ago, had the United Kingdom been joined with mainland Europe.

But on December 1, 1990, some 40 meters beneath the bed of the English Channel, construction worker Graham Fagg and his French counterpart Philippe Cozette shook hands through a hand-drilled hole to complete the longest undersea tunnel in the world.

This extraordinary engineering feat was the culmination of proposals from both sides of the Channel dating back as far as 1751 when the Amiens Academy in France held a competition to find a new way of crossing the Channel.

As early as 1880 tunnels were begun in Dover at Shakespeare Cliff and Abbot's Cliff -- the former measured over one mile before being filled, whilst the remnants of the latter still remain to this day -- but a combination of lack of funds and fears of invasion from the continent put a halt to the project.

These problems recurred when proposals were revived in 1984, but by 1986 the British and French governments had ratified a treaty specifying a tunnel length of 50 kilometers (39 of which were under the sea) traveling from Calais to Folkestone.

Construction began the following year with Transmanche Link -- a consortium of British and French construction firms -- chosen to implement the design by Mott Hay and Anderson.

In the seven years it took to complete the project, more than 15,000 workers were employed on site, along with 11 tunnel boring machines used to create three tunnels, two for trains and one service shaft.

The machines drove eight meter-wide cutting wheels which bored through the relatively soft chalky soil. In all, seven million tonnes of spoil were removed from the three tunnels and progress from both English and French sides peaked at just over 400 meters per week.

By June 1991 the two main rail tunnels had met, and three years later on May 6, 1994, Britain's Queen Elizabeth and French President Francois Mitterrand officially opened the Channel Tunnel. Passengers and freight trucks waited a further six months before they could travel.

During and after its construction many doom-mongers predicted catastrophe should fire break out in the tunnel, but these fears were allayed when, on November 18, 1996, a fire that engulfed a shuttle train carrying trucks claimed no lives. Passengers and crew were evacuated to the adjacent service tunnel.

Regrettably, trains which have always whizzed through the French countryside at up to 300 kilometers per hour are restricted to just 160 once they arrive in the UK.

But this ongoing criticism of the British side should finally end when track improvements are completed in 2007, making the London to Paris journey time just 2 hours 15 minutes. It will also coincide with the opening of the spectacular new King Cross Central terminal at London's St Pancras station.

Although the financing of the Channel Tunnel should be filed under modern accounting disasters -- the costs more than doubled to $20 billion -- the Chunnel, as it is often referred to, has revolutionized travel to and from Europe.

Tools:
Save |
Print |
E-mail |
Most Popular |

Next story in Technology

Technology

More U.S. air marshals flying since failed terror attack

The Department of Homeland Security has significantly increased the number of air marshals on flights since a failed Christmas terror attack on a U.S. jetli ...