Channel Tunnel – The 31-mile Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) fulfilled a centuries-old dream by linking Britain and the rest of Europe. It’s more than a tunnel — it rolls infrastructure and immense machinery into an underwater tunnel system. Three concrete tubes each 5 ft. thick, are dug into the earth at Coquelles, France and burrow through the chalky basement of the English Channel. They reemerge at Folkstone, behind the white cliffs of Dover.
Channel Tunnel – Working from both the English side and the French side of the Channel, eleven tunnel boring machines cut through chalk marl to construct two rail tunnels and a service tunnel.
- At its lowest point, it is 75 m (250 ft) deep.
- The undersea portion is 37.9 kilometres (23.5 mi) long
January 22, 2014: Eurotunnel says it achieved one billion euros in turnover in 2013 for the first time. More than 20 million travellers have used the tunnel in 2013, and nearly 325 million since it opened. The number of people using the tunnel increasingly grew and some 330 million passengers have made the trip since 1994.
The tunnel, which carries passengers and freight traffic in separate services, has now become a formidable competitor to maritime ferry services and airlines on the Paris to London route.
Learn more…
- Engineering Marvel Celebrates 20th Birthday: Channel Tunnel –
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