Underwater Tunnels

An underwater tunnel is a passage, gallery, or roadway beneath a body of water.

Underwater tunnels are used for highway traffic, railroads, and subways; to transport
water, sewage, oil, and gas; to divert rivers around dam sites while the dam is being
built; and for military and civil defense purposes. A few examples are discussed below.

An underground tunnel is located at the Chesapeake Bay. The 28.2kilometer (17.5-mile)

crossing between Norfolk and Cape Charles, Virginia, begins as a bridge, but disappears
into the water midway. A combination structure, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel
combines two bridges with two tunnels that pass under major shipping channels.

One notable underwater tunnel is the 137-meter (450-foot) Orwigsburg Tunnel (the first
tunnel dug in the United States) that was completed in 1821 at Orwigsburg Landing,
near Auburn, Pennsylvania. Also impressive are the New York City tunnels: the Holland
Tunnel (the world's only threetube tunnel) and the Lincoln Tunnel (the Hudson River's
first tunnel) under the Hudson river; the Queens-Midtown Tunnel under the East River;
and the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel under New York Bay.

The Channel Tunnel, frequently called the "Chunnel," is a 50-kilometer (32-mile) tunnel
that provides a railroad link under the Strait of Dover in the English Channel between
Cheriton (near Kent), England and Coquelles, France. The tunnel, one of the most
impressive civil engineering projects of the twentieth century, has an ultimate design
capacity of 600 trains per day each way.

Throughout its history, the English Channel has proven to be very hazardous for marine
travel. The Chunnel is delivering a large market share of the transportation industry
between England and continental Europe, and is doing it in a much safer way than
traveling through dangerous ocean waters.
With its acknowledged fame in the industrial sector all over the world, Japan holds the honour of
having the greatest underwater tunnel. The name of this tunnel is Sekan, which is not only the
greatest underwater tunnel but also holds the record for being the largest railroad tunnel in the
world. The length of the tunnel measures around 33.4 miles which is equivalent to 53.8
kilometres. It is a marvel to behold the usual passage of trains filled with passengers, that too,
underwater. The tunnel's construction was finally accomplished in the year 1988, taking a period
of almost about two and a half decades to get built, reflecting the meticulous and painstaking
efforts that have gone in the construction of the greatest underwater tunnel of the world. Other
underwater tunnels in the world are inclusive of Channel tunnel(which goes from France to
England), Tokyo Bay (which is also in Japan), which are also few of the greatest underwater
tunnels of the world after Sekan tunnel.

t 112 metres long and holding a million gallons of water, the underwater tunnel at
Deep Sea World is one of the longest underwater tunnels in the world.

When you are standing in the underwater tunnel, the curvature of the 6.5cm thick acrylic
makes everything appear about 30% smaller than it actually is. So when you see our large
sharks, just imagine how big they actually are!

The arched shape of the acrylic gives the tunnel the strength to hold back the enormous
weight of millions of litres of water. In fact, the acrylic is the same material used by NASA
in space shuttles and each panel of acrylic can withstand the weight of two African
elephants!

IKU
Posted on Jun. 4th, 2008

theArcher89

3.1 average rating for 62 answers in Science & Technology

475 IKU in this category

In 1802, French engineer Albert Mathieu proposed to tunnel under the English Channel,
with illumination from oil lamps, horsedrawn coaches, and an artificial island mid-
Channel for changing horses. First surveys were made in the 1830s by Aimé Thomé de
 Gamond and in 1856 he presented a hefty proposal to Napoleon III (7 million pounds
sterling). 

The Thames Tunnel to Wapping was built by Marc and his son Isambard Kingdom
Brunel in 1843. It was the world's first underwater tunnel. Originally, a pedestrian
tunnel, it was now occupied by the East London Line of the London Underground, and
now had been closed for conversion to become part of the London Overground network
by summer 2010. 

  First Underwater Train Tunnel In India

Started by : Pragya Kothari, Construction-Heavy, DLF   11 months ago

Industry : ConstructionFunctional Area : India(Markets)

Keywords : india afcons kolkota under water tunnel train tunnel

Activity: 403 referals  766 views;  last activity : 2 months ago

Afcons Infrastructure, the infrastructure arm of Shapoorji Pallonji group, has bagged a Rs 938-crore contract from
Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation (KMRC) for a critical stretch of the Rs 4,678-crore East-West Metro that includes
three underground stations and a section under the river Hooghly.

This is the first time that a transportation tunnel running 20 metre below a river will be built in India.Afcons
Infrastructure will design and execute the project dubbed “UG 1” through a recently formed strategic JV with a
Russian company Transtonnelstroy. 

As this is a unique project first of its kind, what are the things one should keep in mind while
constructing something like this?  

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