Centenary construction. Railway tunnel under the English Channel that connects France and England
The North and South tunnels were completed on May 22, 1991 and June 28, 1991, respectively. Equipment installation work followed. On May 6, 1994, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and French President François Mitterrand officially opened the tunnel.
The Eurotunnel is a complex engineering structure, including two circular track tunnels with an internal diameter of 7.6 meters, located at a distance of 30 meters from each other, and a service tunnel with a diameter of 4.8 meters located between them.
The journey from Paris to London takes two hours and 15 minutes, and from Brussels to London two hours. Moreover, the train stays in the tunnel itself for no more than 35 minutes. Eurostar has carried more than 150 million passengers since 1994, and passenger numbers have been growing steadily over the past decade.
In 2014, 10.4 million passengers used Eurostar services.
The European Union has approved the takeover of Eurostar by the French railway operator SNCF. Once the deal is completed, SNCF will have to allow competing firms to fly the same routes.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Not long ago, an underwater tunnel appeared on the European continent between France and England, with a total length of 51 kilometers, of which 39 kilometers are under water. There are two branches of railway tracks in this tunnel. This structure is considered the longest on the continent of Europe. Today, residents of not only two neighboring countries, but residents of the entire planet can get from the territory of continental Europe directly to good old England. The travel time of the train through the underwater part of the structure will take no more than twenty minutes, a maximum of thirty-five minutes, and the entire tunnel under the English Channel will be passed by the train. The entire journey from Paris to London will take no more than two hours and fifteen minutes. The grand opening of the constructed structure took place on May 6, 1994.
This railway Eurotunnel occupies third position in the world ranking. The Gotthard tunnel is considered the longest tunnel; its length is fifty-seven kilometers and one hundred meters. On the second line of this indicator is the Seikan structure, with a length of fifty-three kilometers and eight hundred meters. And yet, the French and British do not want to give up the palm, noting that the underwater part of the Channel Tunnel is larger compared to the Seikan structure, because the length of its underwater part is twenty-three kilometers three hundred meters.
The idea of creation
The first ideas and first projects for the construction of a tunnel under the English Channel appeared at the end of the eighteenth - at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Nord-Pas-de-Calais region was proposed as a construction site.
The French engineer Albert Mathieu-Favier proposed the idea of building such a structure in 1802. In his project, the Channel Tunnel was to be illuminated through the use of oil lamps. Horse-drawn carriages were offered as transport for travelers and business people. The project provided for the creation of ventilation in the form of vents leading to the sea surface. The price of such a structure at that time was equal to one million pounds sterling. In the twenty-first century, in 2005, this amount would already be equal to sixty-six million four hundred thousand pounds sterling.
When the fighting died down and a peace treaty was concluded between the two states of France and England, Napoleon Bonaparte invited England to get acquainted with this project. However, due to the resumption of military battles on the territory of the European continent, the project was not implemented. The Eurotunnel of that time did not appear. Moreover, in the British Parliament, Lord Palmerston's indignation knew no bounds. He spoke briefly and sternly in English: “There is no point in spending money directing it to shorten the distance with a neighboring state, because it is already very short.”
Half a century passed, and with the onset of 1856, another French engineer, Thomas de Gamond, proposed another project to create a tunnel under the English Channel, with the laying of railway tracks. Thus, France and England would become much closer. And if the French side approved this project, then on the shores of Foggy Albion they continued to doubt the feasibility of building such a structure. In this peak situation, Gamond manages to find an ally in the person of the British mining engineer Peter Barlow. Subsequently, sixteen years later, Barlow, along with his colleague Sir John Hawkshaw, began raising funds to ensure the construction of the lintel.
Three years later, in 1875, Peter William Barlow proposed a new project for the construction of a tunnel under the English Channel, which was based on the idea of laying large-diameter steel pipes at the bottom of the strait, inside which the very desired tunnel would be located. But this project remained only on paper. At the same time, engineer Barlow is building the first metro line in his country. It will be the first line not only in the UK, but also on a global scale.
The idea of building a tunnel structure continues to hover within the walls of the parliaments of the two states. As a result of paperwork, a resolution of the English and French parliament on the construction of the tunnel was born. But the whole project has not yet been implemented due to lack of financial support. A year later, the project begins to be implemented.
Throughout 1881, geological exploration surveys were carried out. With the arrival of two English-Beaumont drilling machines at the end of October of the same year, the construction of the structure came to life. Drilling is done from both sides. On the French coast, this is a place near the town of Sangatte; on the British coast, this place is chosen near the city of Dover in the town of Shakespeare Cliff.
The work had been going on for several months, when the idea began to float again in the English government and parliament that the construction of the tunnel would not contribute to the full security of the country, and enemy troops could easily penetrate into British territory. As a result, on March 18, 1883, construction stopped for an indefinite period. Since the beginning of construction work, the French dug a tunnel 1829 meters long, the British managed to overcome a greater distance, which was equal to two thousand twenty-six meters.
The next attempt to build a tunnel structure was made in 1922. The drilling took place near the town of Folkestone. Having overcome one hundred and twenty-eight meters, construction is frozen again, this time the reason was political considerations.
After the Second World War ended victoriously, the French and British returned to the implementation of the idea of building a European tunnel. Since 1957, a formed group of specialists has begun work to find the optimal option for constructing such a long-awaited structure. It took a group of specialists three years to give their recommendations on the creation of two main tunnels and one service tunnel, which was to be located between the two main structures.
Construction
Another thirteen years passed, and in 1973 the project received general approval and went into operation. Regular financial proceedings lead to another stop in construction work in 1975. By that time, a test tunnel had been dug; its length was only two hundred and fifty meters.
Nine years later, the governments of the two powers come to the conclusion that such a grandiose construction cannot be done without attracting private capital. After publication in 1986, specialists and financial tycoons were offered four options for this unique project for consideration and discussion. Oddly enough, the most acceptable option turned out to be the one that was most similar to the project dated 1973. Progress during the discussion was visible to the naked eye. It took government officials and financial tycoons only twenty-three days to sign an agreement on the creation of a tunnel in the Canterbury area on February 12, 1986. True, its ratification took place only in 1987.
This last project involved connecting two cities, on the English side - this is a place near the city of Folkestone, and on the French coast - this is the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Calais. The approved option gave the go-ahead for the construction of the longest track compared to other options under consideration. Since in these places the most pliable chalk geological soil layer was located, but the future Eurotunnel had to run at a greater depth, this deepening mark was equal to fifty meters from the bottom of the English Channel. At the same time, the northern part of the structure should have been higher than the southern part of the tunnel. Therefore, the French mine went to a depth of sixty meters, and the diameter was equal to fifty meters.
The work of the first tunneling shield for horizontal excavation began on December 15, 1987. A year later, on the last day of February, the creation of the so-called French double begins. This work consisted of drilling a tunnel for household needs and in case of unforeseen circumstances with a diameter of 4.8 meters. To dig the two main branches of the structure, the most powerful equipment of that time was used, with the use of tunneling machines, which ensured the laying of paths through the rocky soil. The diameter of each of the main tunnels reached a value of 7.6 meters.
In the area of the tunnel depth, simultaneous, continuous operation of eleven shields was carried out. Of this number of shields, three units worked on laying a tunnel, moving from the Shakespeare Cliff point towards the British terminal, this is already in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Folkestone. Three other shield units advanced towards the sea, diving under the English Channel. Three French shields worked in the opposite direction, starting their journey from the mining area, near the town of Sangate. Two units of shields bit into the ground rock of three tunnels, heading inland, and from there the direction went to the terminal area, near Calais.
The operation of these machines made it possible to simultaneously strengthen tunnel walls with concrete segments. This achieved the enveloping formation of a tunnel shaft with one and a half meter rings. On average, no more than fifty minutes of time were spent on creating one such ring.
Models of British cars covered a distance of one hundred and fifty meters per day. French cars covered a path only one hundred and ten meters long. The forty-meter difference was due to different design features of the machines and different conditions for shaft drilling. In order to ensure the final result of meeting the broken shafts in the place specified by the project, a laser positioning system was used. Such high and precise technical support for the work made it possible to carry out the meeting at the exact designated location. It took place on December 1, 1990, where the depth of the tunnel shaft from the torrential bottom was forty meters. The size of the errors was small: vertically – 5.8 centimeters, and horizontally – 35.8 centimeters. French workers managed to dig sixty-nine kilometers of tunnel shafts, and the British dug eighty-four kilometers of tunnel shafts. The last meters of the broken trunks were achieved through the hard work of the diggers, because the trunks were broken through manually using shovels and picks. After the joining of the main tunnels took place, the French dismantled their equipment and removed it from the shafts, the British took their tunneling shields under their own power to a parking lot in the area of the underground depot.
During the work period, to ensure the precise direction of the machines, the operator reviewed computer screens and video monitors. All tunnel work was provided by satellite observatories, which carried out direct calculations, ensuring high accuracy of the laid path. The use of narrow drills ensured the probing of calcareous clay samples, which in general was able to achieve directional accuracy of one hundred and fifty meters forward. The use of a laser beam in the direction of the harvester light-sensitive point provided assistance to the driver in choosing the right direction.
In the tunnel shafts, at a distance of eight kilometers from the coastline of each of the two countries, additional junctions were created through the use of tunneling machines. If necessary, they can be used to transfer trains to the adjacent tunnel.
During the construction period, team tunnellers, using small-sized equipment, created additional passages with the help of which it was possible to get into the service tunnel. Transitions have been created along the entire length of the main tunnels every three hundred and seventy-five meters.
The arch located above the service trunk served to carry out the channels. designed to reduce pressure in the two main tunnels.
Over the entire period of construction work, about eight million cubic meters of natural rock were selected. Each country participating in the construction disposed of the extracted land wealth at its own discretion. The builders of Great Britain, by using their part of the rock on their native coast, managed to create an entire artificial cape, which now bears the name of the great English playwright William Shakespeare. On this territory, with an area of 0.362 kilometers, a park area was created. The French side followed a simple path, but without benefit to society, they took and washed away the extracted soil with water, and subsequently sent all the resulting pulp into the depths of the sea.
It took no more than seven years to implement such a grandiose project, which was discussed, reflected, fought and broke spears for almost two centuries. The tunnel between England and France was created by the hands of thirteen thousand workers and engineers. A lot of people gathered at the ceremonial event marking the start of operation of the longest tunnel on the European continent, opened by representatives of the participating countries in the person of French President Francois Mitterrand and Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.
The meaning of the tunnel
Today, four trains operate in the Channel Tunnel. We are talking about high-speed trains of the TGV Eurostar type, which run along the route: from the Brussels Midi Zuid station, then the Paris Gare du Nord station and further to the English station in London St. Pancras, making intermediate stops at Lille stations, Calais and Ashford.
The maximum speed of such express trains reaches three hundred kilometers per hour. When passing through the tunnel part of the path, it decreases to one hundred and sixty kilometers per hour. On this line, on the French side, shuttle trains of the Eurotunnel Shuttle type are used, which can transport not only cars, but also vans and large passenger buses on the route from Folkestone to Sangatte. Using a special system of loading operations, vehicle entry to the carriage site takes only eight minutes. Passengers do not move anywhere, but remain inside their vehicles. The line also operates Eurotunnel Shuttle freight trains, which are an open carriage platform. Freight transport is delivered to them; drivers of large trucks follow locally in a separate carriage. Such trains can deliver cargo to or any other cargo. In freight trains, traction is provided by the operation of electric locomotives of the British Rail Class-92 type.
The Eurotunnel is significant primarily for the society of the countries participating in the construction of this structure. We are talking about the same notorious traffic jams. There are significantly fewer of them. With regard to economic benefits and the presence of development potential, these two factors have a significant positive impact, primarily on the surrounding regions. The English southwest benefits evolutionarily and socially because they have fast, efficient and cheap transport on their land. But again, all this applies only to the population living in the nearest administrative units adjacent to the transport artery. As with everything that surrounds us, the significance of this building has its own negative phenomena, starting with environmental issues.
After a five-year operational period, the first results were summed up. They looked disappointing in the economic aspect, because there was no benefit as such. The British were harsher in their conclusions, making a disappointing statement that the British economy would have performed better if the Channel Tunnel had not existed at all. Some experts went even further, saying that the payback on the constructed structure will only be exceeded after a whole millennium has passed.
Incidents
As for the rest of the negativity, there is plenty of that too. And above all, this is due to the unsolvable problems of illegal immigrants who use any possible transport artery to get to the shores of Foggy Albion. Most of this unorganized people enter the UK, making their way onto freight train sites. There were cases when bright personalities from the immigrant environment showed a kind of master class, jumping from a bridge onto a passing train. Not all such somersaults ended happily; there were also casualties. Some representatives of the emigrant environment managed to penetrate into the carriage areas and hide in the skerries of the transported equipment. Such actions led to delays of trains and disruption of train schedules. In some cases, unplanned repairs were required. Over the course of a month, such extraordinary expenses amounted to five million euros. Several dozen emigrants managed to penetrate into the interior of the main tunnel, where they died.
Ultimately, the French side made additional expenditures in the amount of €5,000,000, installing a double fence and CCTV cameras, as well as ordering enhanced police patrols.
The Channel Tunnel's security system was tested eight times while artificially creating real emergencies by specific culprits.
The first incident began on November 18, 1996; it was necessary to eliminate the consequences of a fire that occurred in a tunnel on board a shuttle train transporting trucks. Thirty-four vehicle drivers were rescued from the burning train and taken to the service tunnel. Ambulance medical personnel transported eight people who had severe burns. The remaining passengers were evacuated by using another train going in the opposite direction. Fire crews fought the fire for several hours in conditions of low water pressure in the fire main, overcoming the effects of strong ventilation drafts and the presence of high temperatures.
The consequences of such a fire were as follows; There was serious damage along the two-hundred-meter length of the tunnel. The same number of meters of the tunnel shaft were partially damaged. In some tunnel sections, burnt concrete rings were discovered to a depth of fifty millimeters. The locomotive and some of the last cars were taken out of service.
All victims were provided with the necessary assistance, and their ability to work was fully restored. The design features of the tunnel shafts and the coordinated work of the security services of Great Britain and France made it possible to avoid casualties.
After three days, the Eurotunnel again gave the green light to freight trains through only one of the tunnels. The full resumption of passenger train traffic occurred two weeks later.
10.10. 2001 there is a sudden stop of the train in the middle part of the tunnel. As a result, in such emergency situations, panic arises in the passenger environment, especially among those people who are susceptible to attacks of claustrophobia. The evacuation of the passenger flow was carried out through the service tunnel passages, after a five-hour wait and uncertainty.
On August 21, 2006, one of the trucks that was being transported on the shuttle train platform caught fire. Transport traffic through the tunnel shafts was suspended indefinitely.
The next force majeure event occurs on September 11, 2008. On the French side of the tunnel part, a fire occurs in one of the carriages of a freight train traveling to France from the English coast. The train transported trucks. The driving crew consisted of thirty-two people, all of whom were evacuated. Fourteen drivers required hospitalization due to minor injuries and carbon monoxide poisoning. The fire in the tunnel raged throughout the night and the next morning. In the UK, in the town of Kent, huge traffic jams occurred as the road was blocked by police to prevent vehicles from getting close to the tunnel entrance.
Transport traffic along the two tunnel shafts was restored after 134 days.
On December 18, 2009, there was a sudden failure of one of the systems, in particular the tunnel power supply. This force majeure event occurred due to a sharp temperature change, which resulted in heavy snowfall in the northern part of French territory. Five trains stopped in the tunnel belly.
Experts found that such a stop was possible due to the unpreparedness of trains for operation in winter. There was no adequate level of protection for live lines and undercar space. Carrying out annual maintenance of all trains was an insufficient measure for the operation of trains in winter, cold conditions with low temperatures.
On January 07, 2010, the Eurostar passenger train, carrying two hundred and sixty passengers, suddenly stopped. The train followed the route Brussels - London. For two hours the train stood in a tunnel under the English Channel. A team of specialists along with an auxiliary locomotive was sent to the place where the train stood. The faulty train was towed away by the dispatched locomotive. In the conclusion of experts, the reason for the sudden stop was named - it was melted snow on the tunnel section of the track. There was snow in the electrical equipment compartments. After entering the tunnel, he simply melted.
On March 27, 2014, a fire started on the British coast in a building located near the entrance to the tunnel. Train traffic is stopped. All four Eurostar trains returned to their departure points: Brussels, Paris and London. The cause of the fire was a lightning strike. No people were hurt.
On January 17, 2015, smoke begins to pour out of the depths of one of the tunnel shafts, and the movement of trains is suspended.
The cause of the fire in the Channel Tunnel was a truck that caught fire. The fire broke out in the tunnel part, near the entrance to it from the French side.
The passengers were evacuated in a timely manner. There were no casualties. Trains returned to the stations of their departure points.
This was the fourth incident since the beginning of the operational period of the Eurotunnel, when a truck caught fire on the platform of a freight train.
The total cost of constructing the Channel Tunnel is an impressive £10000000000, taking into account all inflationary costs.
Finance
As for the financial side of operating the Eurotunnel, the costs have not yet been recouped. The first payment of dividends to shareholders was made based on operating results in 2009.
A year later, Eurostar's losses amounted to €58,000,000. The main reason is considered to be the global financial crisis.
Based on the results of the company's work in 2011, a profit of 11,000,000 € was received. During the period mentioned above, 19,000,000 people were transported. The cost of one Eurostar share on the stock market increased to 6.53 €. The dividend amount per share was €0.08.
The idea of connecting France and Great Britain with an underwater tunnel arose in the minds of engineers more than 200 years ago, in 1802. The idea to build it first came to the Frenchman Albert Mathieu Favier.
Oddly enough, Napoleon himself gave it to him after the end of the Franco-English war. In any case, that’s what it says on Wikipedia, which means we have to believe it too.
This idea fluttered like a butterfly in the heads of engineers of those times. For some reason, it occurred mainly to the French. In 1865 - Thomas de Gamond, and in 1875 - Peter William Barlow. But the projects failed to come to fruition for various reasons. This is mainly the First and Second World War.
In contact with
Start and completion of work
Finally, on February 12, 1986, the governments and Great Britain signed an agreement on joint construction under the English Channel, and in 1987 it was ratified.
The route, if you look at the map, turned out to be not the shortest due to considerations in choosing suitable soft ground the bottom of the English Channel at the laying site. It was supposed to connect the cities: French Calais and English Folkestone at a depth of about 50 meters from the bottom of the strait in the soft chalk geological layer of the English Channel.
Tunneling work began on the English side in December 1987, and on the French side in February 1988. In June 1991, the excavation work was completed and after the installation of equipment, the Channel Tunnel was opened on May 6, 1994. The ceremony was attended by the Queen of Great Britain and French President Francois Mitterrand.
Construction began with two 60-meter-deep shafts being dug on both sides of the strait. The necessary equipment and roadheaders were lowered into them.
Throughout history, there have been several attempts to build a tunnel:
- started in 1881, and stopped in 1883;
- started in 1922 and completed after excavation of 120 meters;
- started in 1973 and stopped after digging 250 meters.
Technical details of construction
Three branches were laid simultaneously: two main lines and one service.
Ten tunneling mechanisms about two hundred meters long, with the help of rotating rotors with tungsten cutters with a diameter of eight meters and weighing 11,000 tons, they bit into the chalk rock and at the same time strengthened the tunnel from destruction with concrete blocks interspersed with granite. Two more tunneling machines of smaller diameter (4.7 meters) were laying a service branch. The soil was sent to the surface using trolleys.
Thus, 6 tunneling mechanisms on each side began to move towards each other. In total, 17 million tons of soil were removed.
A particular challenge was the exact match between the French and English parts of the tunnel. This was achieved by a special laser positioning device installed on the boring machines. As a result, the horizontal discrepancy was 36 centimeters and the vertical discrepancy was 6 centimeters.
When there were a few centimeters left between the roadheaders, the remaining bridge was pierced manually . This completes the main construction work.. All that remained was the installation of equipment and finishing work.
The tunnel consists of two main branches with a diameter of 7.6 meters and one service branch with a diameter of 4.7 meters. They connect to the service line every 275 meters. The service branch is under excess pressure in case of fire in the main tunnels so that in case of heavy smoke people can escape in it. The service tunnel contains air ducts for pumping air and pipes with a diameter of 1 meter, in which cold water flows to cool the air in the tunnel from excessive heating.
The train travels through the tunnel for only 35 minutes, but during its operation it has transported more than 160 million people.
Dangerous incidents:
The Channel Tunnel between France and England does not have a separate pipe for road transport. For this purpose, there is a special train, on which cars enter and, together with the drivers, follow through the tunnel. On the other side of the English Channel, cars leave the train platforms under their own power. Trains run at a huge speed of 350 kilometers per hour. In this case, the rails become very hot. And in order to reduce the temperature in the tunnel, a cooling system is provided, which was mentioned above. I will only add that cold sea water from the strait enters the cooling pipe.
Conclusion
Many do not consider the Channel Tunnel a unique structure, much less a “miracle of technology.” Today it is unprofitable due to the high costs of its maintenance, but it still remains a symbol of the European Union, despite the fact that England is about to leave it. Illegal emigration by Eurotunnel trains added another problem. But, nevertheless, the most expensive tunnel in the world is working.
Channel Tunnel
It seems that the French and English have a penchant for long-term joint projects. There are more than enough examples in history: the Hundred Years' War, which they entered in 1337, lasted for 116 years, the project to create the supersonic Concorde aircraft took two decades. And one of the most ambitious construction projects of the 20th century - the Channel Tunnel - began back in 1881. Then the matter did not move beyond the station facilities, but now many people do not understand how they even managed to get to the British Isles when there was no tunnel.
The British have always been and continue to be proud of their isolation from the rest of Europe. They did not switch to the euro and did not join the European Union. The English approach to integration is perfectly characterized by a story dating back to 1858. That year, the question of building a tunnel across the English Channel was first raised in the English Parliament. Hearing this, Lord Palmerston, at that time the Prime Minister of Great Britain, was indignant: “What? Do you dare ask for money for a cause whose purpose is to shorten a distance that we consider already too short?” Against this background, it seems surprising how the inhabitants of Albion decided to build a tunnel to continental Europe. However, no less striking is the tenacity with which French and English engineers proposed projects for a land connection between the two states: in the period from 1883 to 1941 alone, more than 300 (!) different projects for bridges and tunnels were presented.
Underground Cavalry
The idea of establishing a land connection between the continent and the British Isles was born in the middle of the 18th century, when the University of Amiens announced a competition for the best project to connect the two states. The first real tunnel project dates back to 1802. It was developed by Albert Mathieu. The Frenchman proposed to build a tunnel at a depth of about 10 meters from the bottom of the strait for the movement of horse-drawn carriages, illuminate it with oil lamps, and use special shafts for ventilation, which were supposed to rise five meters above the surface of the water. It is known that Napoleon was familiar with Mathieu's project. Did it interest him? History stores exactly the opposite information. According to one version, the tunnel seemed like a crazy idea to Napoleon. According to another, he personally proposed to the British to connect their countries with an underground road.
International metro
With the rapid development of the railway network in England, the horse-drawn versions of the tunnel were replaced by rail ones. The main promoter of such projects was the French mining engineer Thomas de Gamon in the 19th century. It is known that the Frenchman was so fanatical about connecting the continent with the island that he spent more than 30 years carefully studying seven alternative projects. Among them was such an extravagant connection option as a giant bridge resting on bulk islands. In 1860, the new project for the de Gamon tunnel was approved by Napoleon III and Queen Victoria, but the Frenchman’s dream did not come true - construction did not come to fruition.
In the 1870s, relations between the French and the British warmed sharply. After the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the French invited the British to unite to counter a new strong enemy - the German Kaiser. Neighbors began to re-develop the tunnel project.
Victorian engineers achieved great success in tunneling. In 1843, they were the first in the world to construct a tunnel under the Thames with a tunnel shield, and then gained enormous experience in this area during the construction of the world's first London Underground. Therefore, technically, building a tunnel under the English Channel did not pose a big problem. In 1881, two tunneling shields of the company were launched towards each other. Beaumont & English" - the most powerful and technically advanced at that time. In the first year, approximately 2 km of track was dug on both sides: it was expected that the underground meeting of workers would take place in five years. However, in 1883, construction of the Channel Tunnel was stopped. English politicians and journalists increasingly made statements that the tunnel would be a wonderful gift for their potential enemy - in the event of a conflict, the French could easily attack Britain through the tunnel. Until the Second World War, all projects for tunnels or bridges across the English Channel met with severe resistance from the British government. Attitudes towards the project changed only in the mid-1950s.
The tunnel is not so scary...
When the Second World War ended, it became clear that with the advent of new modes of transport and weapons, the tunnel no longer posed a real threat to British defense. This was publicly announced by the UK Ministry of Defense in 1955. Meanwhile, commodity exchange between the island and the continent increased steadily. Therefore, in the summer of 1957, an Anglo-French research group was formed to find out whether it was necessary to connect the two states and, if so, how. By the early 1960s, two alternatives were competing - the tunnel project and the bridge project. According to the first project, it was planned to build a complex railway tunnel under the bottom of the strait, consisting of two working hoses and a service one between them. This project was in competition with the giant bridge project, which was warmly supported by the heads of metallurgical concerns. In the end, the underground project won, but the approval process was delayed. After construction of the tunnel began in 1974, financing problems arose. A year later the project was suspended.
The topic of the tunnel was returned to again only in 1984, when the governments of the two countries announced an open tender for a project that would connect the UK with France. In the fall of 1985, four independent development groups proposed their options.
The most extravagant project was Europont— a 52-kilometer bridge with spans suspended on Kevlar threads. The project was quickly rejected as too expensive and based on as yet untested technology. Another project - Euroroute— proposed a complex system of bridges and tunnels with support points on specially built artificial islands.
Project Channel Expressway It was a two-level tunnel with rail and road connections. Both of these projects were preferred Eurotunnel- the cheapest and easiest to build alternative, which was based on the tunnel concept of the 1970s. According to preliminary calculations of the developers, the implementation of the project Eurotunnel was valued at £5 billion.
However, this amount also seemed too high for the governments of both European countries: in January 1986, Margaret Thatcher and Francois Mitterrand jointly announced that they considered the project too expensive to spend taxpayers' money on.
Rails vs freeway
Project Channel Expressway lost to the project Eurotunnel not only because of the higher cost. It was decided that driving a car through a 50-kilometer tunnel would require a lot of physical and mental stress from drivers, which could lead to stressful situations and accidents. In addition, a more effective solution required the issue of cleaning the tunnel from exhaust gases. The most preferable option is the transportation of cars on electric train platforms.
But such a statement did not mean that the project was postponed again. A way out of the situation was found. We decided to organize an open joint stock company " Eurotunnel", the initial capital of which was to be provided by construction companies with the support of private banks (without state support). The newly formed company had to independently find money for the construction of the tunnel, including through the sale of its shares. As a token of gratitude, she received the right to manage the structure for 55 years. At the end of this period, the tunnel in working order should be handed over to the governments of France and Great Britain.
New story
The further fate of the Channel Tunnel is well known. On December 15, 1987, the first tunneling shield went into operation - it was digging a service tunnel with a diameter of 4.8 m. Then more powerful tunneling machines joined in, digging two main tunnels with a diameter of 7.6 m each. In total, deep in the tunnel, 11 shields worked simultaneously almost without interruption. Three French and three English shields moved towards each other under the bottom of the English Channel. Three more were digging a tunnel deep into the island towards the British terminal, and two were drilling three tunnels towards the French terminal. A 39 km tunnel was dug directly at the bottom of the sea, and its total length was 51 km.
A laser positioning system was used to ensure that both ends met at the same location. Thanks to her, workers from England and France met at the intended point on December 1, 1990, at a depth of 40 m from the bottom of the strait. The error was only 358 mm horizontally and 58 mm vertically. By the way, English and French drillers did the last meters of the tunnel manually - using picks and shovels.
The Eurotunnel was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II and François Mitterrand on May 6, 1994. One of humanity's longest projects was completed in just seven years. 13 thousand workers and engineers took part in its creation, and about 10 billion pounds sterling was spent on construction (taking into account inflation, almost twice as much as originally expected). The dream of Tomé de Gamon and hundreds of other project supporters has finally come true!
The grandiose project of the twentieth century has not yet justified itself financially: only in April 2008 the company “ Eurotunnel» announced annual profits for the first time since its inception. A child that has been gestated for a long time, it seems, also has a long payoff...
Illustrations for the article provided by the company Eurotunnel.
English Channel Bridge
This is what the magazine “Science and Life” wrote about the next project of a bridge across the English Channel in No. 1 for 1890.
Without exaggeration, this century can be called the century of gigantic structures, one of which was the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Exhibition. Now a new, even more grandiose and important structure is being prepared - a bridge across the English Channel, dividing France from England. This bridge will be 28 kilometers long (almost the same number of miles).
The question of connecting England with France by bridge or tunnel has arisen for a long time. In 1873, the issue of a Channel Tunnel was seriously raised. All necessary studies have been carried out; the feasibility of the enterprise was fully proven; its benefit for both countries was undoubted; There were also capitalists who provided money for the implementation of the enterprise. The underwater tunnel project, however, failed due to political considerations. Since the ground forces of England are insignificant, there was a fear that troops could be landed through the tunnel to England. Now a project has arisen to connect England with France not under water, but over water through a bridge of unheard-of size.
In England, a company was formed with huge capital " Channel Bridge" Two famous English engineers took on the technical side of the matter: John Fowler ( Fowler) and Benjamin Becker ( Baker) and two famous French ones: Mr. Schneider and Mr. Gersan ( Hersent), managing one of the largest mechanical factories in the world in Creusot. These four engineers carried out all the necessary research and have already developed a detailed design for a bridge across the English Channel.
The bridge is supposed to be built at the narrowest point of the strait, between Gris-Nez(from France) and Foxton (from England). The distance between these two points in a straight line is less than 28 kilometers; but the bridge will make a slight curve to take advantage of two existing shallows (Varnska and Kolbarska banks). On these shallows the sea depth is only 6-7 meters, which will significantly reduce the cost of building abutment towers. The greatest depth of the sea in this direction is 55 meters (27 fathoms) at low tide.
Thus, it is necessary: 1) to build abutments (hereinafter we will call them towers due to their extraordinary size) at great depths; 2) raise the bridge itself so that the largest sea vessels can pass under it. According to the preliminary draft ( Arant-Projet), builders think of achieving it this way.
The towers (abutments) of the bridge will be made of granite with steel fasteners. You can get an idea of the size of these towers from the fact that the largest of them (at a depth of 55 meters) will have a base area of 1604 square meters. Only steel will be used throughout due to its strength. To build the towers, 76,000 tons of steel and 4 million cubic meters of granite will be required. The superstructure of the bridge will also require another 772,000 tons of steel. The total cost of construction is estimated at 860 million francs, but could reach a billion.
The construction of the towers is carried out using iron caissons, from granite blocks held together with steel ties and cement. The stonework rises above the surface of the water by 21 meters at low tide and 14 meters at high tide (the English Channel level fluctuates by 7 meters). Therefore, at a depth of 55 meters, the masonry would be 76 meters high, assuming that the masonry begins directly on the seabed.
The stone towers will each be topped by two steel towers. The latter will be held together by huge steel beams and have a height of 40 meters. The rails will lie another 11 meters higher, so that trains will run at an altitude of 72 meters (about 35 1/2 fathoms) from the surface of the sea (at low tide). But the steel cover goes above the level of the rails by another 54 meters. Thus, the main tower, placed at a depth of 55 meters, will have a total height of 181 meters (90 fathoms), including 76 meters of masonry. The bridge spans in deep places will be alternately 500 and 300 meters; at smaller ones of 350 and 200 meters, also alternately; finally, near the coast the spans will alternate at 250-100 meters. Flights of 500 meters (half a mile) are more difficult than the Eiffel Tower. But technology has made such enormous strides in recent years that the feasibility of this grandiose project is quite and undoubtedly possible.
The Thames, on which the English capital London stands, was a left tributary, on the banks of which lies the German River. When they melted, sea levels rose, and vast areas became the bottom of the English Channel. Britain became an island. However, the idea of reconnecting the two most important parts of Europe by land has long been the cherished dream of the inhabitants of the Old World.
For two centuries, scientists have been developing different ways to overcome the English Channel. The tunnel project was first proposed more than 100 years ago, in 1802. Albert Mathieu proposed a project for crossing the English Channel, and the next year a similar plan arose on the other side, in England. True, at that time they were more inclined to build a bridge that would pass over the strait. This gigantic structure was supposed to consist of five-kilometer spans suspended above the sea on heavy-duty cables. The idea was rejected - such gigantic bridges had never been built before, and experts doubted: would the structure be reliable? There were also completely unusual proposals. For example, about erecting artificial islands throughout the entire strait, and from these islands stretching bridges that connect with each other. But this was an even more unrealistic project. It was decided to stop at building an underground road.
The idea of building a road leading from France to England had many opponents. Many people said that in case of war between two countries, this tunnel could be used against the enemy. However, even then this objection was considered absurd. After all, if there is a threat of attack, it is very easy to quickly block the tunnel by blowing up or filling up even a small part of it. And the troops at the exit of the tunnel are more of a convenient target than a formidable force.
For a long time everything remained at the level of projects and plans. They started thinking seriously about building a tunnel only in 1955. They even started construction and started digging pits. However, nothing came of this venture. Two years later, the energy crisis forced workers and engineers to abandon the dug pits, which quickly filled with rainwater. Only 11 years later, the governments of England and France announced that they were ready to again consider the possibility of a land connection between the two. But with one condition - all work must be carried out by private companies at their own expense.
9 of the best projects were selected, and for a whole year there was serious debate about which one deserved more attention. A year later, according to the majority, the best was chosen. It was supposed to lay railway tracks and highways for cars next to each other. However, the road under the strait had to be abandoned. First, a car accident in a tunnel is much more likely than a train crash. But the consequences of such an accident in a long underground “pipe” can be serious and paralyze traffic for a long time. Secondly, an armada of cars rushing into the tunnel would inevitably fill it with exhaust fumes, which means a very powerful ventilation system would be required to constantly clean the air. Well, thirdly, it is known that traveling in a tunnel tires the driver. We decided to go with the design, which was described in the 1960 project and finalized in the mid-70s.
Work began on the English coast in December 1987, and on the French coast three months later. Huge machines with rotating cutting heads laid a kilometer a month. In total, the construction of the tunnel took three years.
The tunnels were laid, on average, 45 meters below the seabed. When the two halves of the service tunnel were separated by only 100 meters, a small tunnel was dug by hand to connect them. Until the moment of docking, 120 mine locomotives removed rock from the faces, monthly traveling a distance equal to two distances around the earth. The workers met at the end of 1990.
The completion of the two railway tunnels took place on June 28, 1991. However, do not think that the construction was completely completed. Only the central tunnel was completed. And it was still necessary to dig a second, service tunnel, and also lay rails. More than 2,000 companies took part in the international competition for the right to receive an order for rails for the strait. French customers preferred those made in Russia.
The tunnel was completely opened relatively recently - on May 6, 1994. Queen Elizabeth II herself and President Mitterrand took part in its opening. After the ceremonial part, the Queen took the train and arrived from London Waterloo station to the town of Calais on the French coast. In turn, Mitterrand arrived there from the Gare do Nord station in Paris via Lille. As the locomotives of the two trains stopped nose to nose, the two heads of state cut the blue, white and red ribbons to the sounds of their countries' national anthems, which were performed by the band of the French Republican Guard. Then the British and French delegations in Rolls-Royce cars crossed the tunnel to the British coast, to the town of Folkestone, where exactly the same ceremony took place as on the French side.
Features of the Channel Tunnel
In reality, there are three tunnels: two railway tunnels (one receives trains from France to England, the other from England to France) and one performs operational functions. Currently, this is the fastest route from London to Paris or (about 3). Passenger trains depart regularly from London Waterloo and take you to Paris's Gare du Nord or Brussels' Midi-Zuid.
The diameter of each tunnel is 7.3 meters, the length is about 50 kilometers, of which 37 pass under the water column. All tunnels are clad in dense concrete frames, the walls of which are about 40 centimeters.
Special trains with platforms for cars and carriages for passengers depart every hour. In total, 350 electric locomotives pass through the tunnel per day, which makes it possible to transport more than 200,000 tons of cargo. Cars use the tunnel trains as a moving highway. They enter the carriage at one end and exit at the other after a 35-minute journey. Electric locomotives reach speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour.
There are many incidents associated with the Channel Tunnel. For example, on October 12, 2003, an unknown person was discovered there who lived in a tunnel for ... 2 years, occasionally coming to the surface to stock up on food and water. It is strange that it was not discovered earlier, since a system of internal surveillance cameras is stretched along the entire length of the tunnel.
The following year, an emergency occurred: an employee of the English branch of Eurostar discovered 15 people on the railway tracks. Some of them were wounded, one very seriously. According to a British police spokesman, illegal immigrants (presumably Turks) were most likely found in the tunnel. Apparently, intending to get to England, they climbed into one of the carriages of the freight train while still on the mainland, and then jumped off while moving in the place where the train slows down a little at the exit of the tunnel.
However, such violations are suppressed. For this purpose, there is a serious security service working 24 hours a day.
The entire project cost £10 billion - twice as much as planned. A year after its official opening, Eurotunnel announced losses of £925 million - one of the biggest negative amounts in British corporate history. Additionally, in 1996, freight traffic through the tunnel was suspended for 6 months due to a fire caused by a truck that caught fire.
Although the tunnel project was very expensive and the costs have not yet been recouped, the structure still represents an example of modern engineering excellence, taking safety and functionality into account in equal measure.