Completed section of Channel Tunnel Service Tunnel situated between the two Rail Tunnels used for maintenance and evacuation.
Safety in depth is built into the Channel Tunnel system. Between the two rail tunnels is a smaller service tunnel linked by a series of cross passages every 375 metres. This system allows for maintenance access and evacuation of passengers in an emergency. The Channel Tunnel is one of the wonders of the modern world. It is thirty-two miles long at an average depth of 45 metres below the sea-bed, the longest undersea tunnel and the second longest rail tunnel in the world (only the Seikan Tunnel in Japan is longer). It was built between 1987 and 1994 by Anglo-French consortium TransManche Link and is owned and operated by Anglo-French Eurotunnel plc. It opened for business in late 1994, offering services including a shuttle train for car, coach and freight vehicles, a Eurostar high-speed passenger service linking London with Paris and Brussels and a rail freight service. The tunnel boring machines were specially designed for excavating the chalk marl rock which lies beneath the seabed along the tunnel route. Digging the tunnel took 15 thousand workers around 170 million man hours over 7 years with tunnelling happening simultaneously from both ends.
Size: 5988px × 2870px
Location: 40m under seabed between UK and France, Europe
Photo credit: © qaphotos.com / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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