The largest tunnel in the world. English Channel: the longest underwater tunnel in the world, which turned out to be unprofitable. The longest tunnel in the world

All along the road in the tunnel is illuminated by light with a bluish tint; in the grottoes the light is bright blue with orange illumination from below, which is close to the color of sunlight.

Emergency telephones for rescuers are located every 250 meters.
Mobile phones operate in the tunnel using special repeaters.
Fire extinguishers are attached to the tunnel arches every 125 meters.
Along the route, electronic signs are installed that signal and warn the driver in case of danger, for example in the event of an accident, deep in the tunnel.

Emergency niches have been created every 500 meters for emergency stopping of vehicles.
Photo sensors are installed at the entrance and exit of the tunnel, which, according to the program, detect the number of cars entering and exiting. This is also one of the security measures.

Interesting feature! The tunnel itself is mostly straight, essentially 25.5 km of straight road. In Norway, and especially near Bergen, there are almost no straight sections of roads, and drivers in the tunnel began to exceed the speed limit. In order to record violations, devices were installed to measure the speed of cars moving inside the tunnel.
Forced ventilation has been created in the tunnel to clean the air from exhaust gases.

The Laerdal Tunnel is currently the longest road tunnel on the planet.

We focus specifically on the word “road”, since there are longer tunnels, but they are used by railway transport. That's why we don't include them in our schedule.

In Norway it is almost impossible to move between settlements without crossing mountains. Those who have traveled to Norway know how beautiful this country is. Unfortunately, its complex geography, abundance of mountains, glaciers and labyrinthine fjords sometimes create conditions in which some Norwegian communities remain cut off from each other and from civilization during the winter. To build communication routes that do not depend on weather and seasonal conditions, it is often necessary to create them directly through the rocks, that is, to build tunnels.

In general, humanity is trying to make things as easy as possible and reduce the distances between points on the globe. One such logical project is the legendary Panama Canal.

The Laerdal Tunnel is one of the roads connecting remote areas of the country.

Where is the Laerdal tunnel?

The tunnel connects the municipalities of Laerdal and Aurland in the Sogn og Fjordane region in southwestern Norway and is part of the E16 road between Oslo (the capital) and Bergen, the country's second largest city.

Geographic coordinates 60.973894, 7.379064

Laerdal tunnel in numbers

• Length – 24.51 km
• Width – 9 meters
• Average height – 7.5 meters
• Minimum height – 5 meters
• Start of construction - March 15, 1995
• Commissioning date: November 27, 2000
• The mountains in which the tunnel is built reach 1600 meters in height
• Average daily traffic 1000 cars
• The average travel time is 20 minutes (at the end of the article you can watch a video of driving through the tunnel, although the sound design of the video is, as they say, “not for everyone”)
• Project cost NOK 1.082 billion (or US$113.1 million)
• The Laerdal tunnel has two lanes of traffic in opposite directions

Find out about the Øresund Bridge-Tunnel between Denmark and Sweden. If you are confused by the wording “Bridge-Tunnel”, then be sure to read the article at the link above and find out why this definition is the most correct.

Safety of the Laerdal Tunnel

One of the main challenges facing engineers was keeping drivers on their toes during 20 minutes of monotonous driving with the same landscape outside the window. This is indeed very important for drivers who may lose concentration leading to an accident.

To achieve this, the Lärdal Tunnel has small bends between straight sections of the road, and large caves can be found every 6 km along the way. There are three such caves in total. They are designed to break up the monotony of the journey, to give the driver the opportunity to rest or turn around if necessary. For people with claustrophobia, such caves will become a kind of outlet. The caves divide the entire tunnel into 4 approximately equal sections. In addition to three large caves, there are emergency niches every 500 meters.

Lighting and rumble strip

Particular attention was paid to lighting. The main tunnel (the areas between the caves) is illuminated in white tones, simulating daylight. The caves feature blue lighting with yellow lights around the edges to give the impression of a sunrise.

In the center, between the traffic lanes, there is a “rumble strip”. This is a special corrugated surface, when driving over it, increased noise from the wheels is generated. Thus, even if the driver loses his vigilance, he will immediately concentrate on the road.

Air purification system in the Lärdal tunnel

There are no numerous ventilation outlets in the tunnel. Therefore, the second important design problem was the air supply and purification system.
The Laerdal Tunnel was the first tunnel equipped with its own air purification and ventilation unit.

Large fans draw air from both inlets and exhaust contaminated air through one single vent. This exit and the treatment plant itself are located in a separate 100-meter cave 9.5 kilometers from the southern end of the tunnel on the Aurland municipality side. Plus, there are electrostatic and carbon filters, which, in addition to removing dust, purify the air from nitrogen dioxide.

Additional security systems

There are no emergency exits in the tunnel. In case of accidents or fire, a number of precautions are provided. There are emergency telephones marked “SOS” every 250 meters. They allow you to quickly contact the police, fire or medical services. Fire extinguishers are located every 125 meters. Moreover, if an emergency telephone is used or a fire extinguisher is removed, then the brake lights and “turn” and “exit” signs light up throughout the entire tunnel, and the “tunnel closed” signs turn on at both entrances and exits.

Video of the drive through the Lärdal tunnel

10

A railway tunnel in Japan is 53.85 km long with an underwater fragment 23.3 km long. The tunnel descends to a depth of about 240 meters, 100 meters below the seabed. It lies under the Sangar Strait, connecting Aomori Prefecture on the Japanese island of Honshu and the island of Hokkaido - as part of the Kaikyo and Hokkaido Shinkansen Line of the Hokkaido Railway Company. It is the deepest seabed and second longest railway tunnel in the world.

9

The railway tunnel in Switzerland is 57.1 km long (including service and pedestrian passages - 153.4 km). The northern portal of the tunnel is located near the village of Erstfeld, and the southern portal is located near the village of Bodio. After the completion of the eastern part (October 15, 2010) and the western part (March 23, 2011), it became the longest railway tunnel in the world.

8 Beijing Subway: Line 10

The high-speed rail transport system of Beijing, the capital of China, has been in operation since 1969 and has been rapidly developing since the end of the 20th century. It ranks second among metro systems in the world in terms of line length and annual passenger flow, as well as second place in peak daily passenger flow after the Moscow Metro.

7 Guangzhou Metropolitan: Line 3

The decision to build a metro in Guangzhou was made in 1989. Construction began in 1993. The first line was put into operation on June 28, 1997. In 2002, the second line was opened, in 2005 - the third and fourth. On December 28, 2013, metro line 6 was opened.

6

It was built in 1987 in Sweden. The cross section of the tunnel is 8 m2.

5

Within a large water management system. of the Orange River project, in the middle reaches of the river, the Hendrik-Verwoerd and Le Roux dams and reservoirs were built, designed to regulate the river flow, irrigate agricultural lands, industrial water supply, and for hydropower purposes. Part of the flow from the Hendrik-Verwoerd reservoir is transferred through a tunnel through the mountain range to the south of South Africa.

4

One of the longest tunnels is located in Liaoning province. China has previously taken part in the implementation of large-scale road projects. For example, the Danyang-Kunshan Great Bridge is the most long bridge in the world.

3

Päijänne water pipeline- a conduit tunnel located in the south of Finland. Its length is 120 km, depth from 30 to 100 m from the surface. The purpose of constructing the water pipeline is to supply water to the capital agglomeration of Finland, in whose cities (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and others) more than a million people live.

2

Many of us have the luxury of instant access to clean water, but few people think about the miracles of technology that allow us to pour ourselves a glass of water. New York is one of those cities that lacks fresh water sources. As the population grew, aqueducts began to appear. In 1945, the Delaware Aqueduct appeared. Today it supplies the population of the metropolis with water by 50 percent. It is the second longest continuous tunnel in the world with a length of 137 kilometers. It was created by drilling and blasting hard rocks. The aqueduct works incredibly efficiently - 95 percent of the total volume of water is supplied independently.

1

The longest tunnel in the world- Thirlmere aqueduct. Its length is 154,000 meters, construction began in 1890 and ended in 1925. Formally, it is not the longest tunnel in the world, since it is not a continuous tunnel, but it is generally accepted to consider it the longest tunnel in the world. The aqueduct was built to carry water from the Manchester reservoir, and about 250 thousand cubic meters of water passes through it every day.

Relief earth's surface not perfectly flat, but almost always difficult, 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 it was possible to 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)

Trans-Siberian Railway or Great Siberian way, which connects the Russian capital Moscow with Vladivostok, until recently bore the honorary title of...

IN in this case we are talking about a road tunnel that shortens the route from the municipality of Laerdal to the other 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)

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)

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)

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 construction 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)

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)

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. During its excavation, the most modern technologies drilling, 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 has significantly reduced the amount of traffic congestion in the area, since previously trucks and trucks had to bypass Switzerland, making a large circle to travel 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)

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)

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, just those on Japanese are pronounced differently. 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)

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, transalpine transport became possible. railway connection, and north-west Italy was able to switch from 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.