Driver of pipework erecting train inches forward to allow operatives to install cooling water pipes in the Channel Tunnel
Tunnel cooling is usually accomplished by circulating air from one end to the other but the Channel Tunnel is far too long for this method to work effectively. The high-speed trains running through the two long rail tunnels would act like pistons in an engine, generating heat that could reach over 50C much too hot for passengers and equipment. The solution was to use two chiller plants, one at each end. It is the world's largest chilled-water system and the Channel Tunnel is the world's first air-conditioned tunnel. The chiller plants cool and circulate 54 million gallons of water through a 150-mile network of chilled-water pipes. The 24-inch diameter chilled-water pipes run in closed circuits. Each one goes halfway through a tunnel, makes a U-turn, then heads back to its chiller plant. The pipes serve as huge, natural heat exchangers. The Channel Tunnel is no ordinary project. The four types of cross-channel service that the Tunnel offers - conventional freight and passenger trains, plus two types of road vehicle shuttle have made it into the busiest railway in the world. The fast and efficient movement of road and rail traffic into, through and out of the Eurotunnel system is integral to that success. 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.
Size: 3312px × 3312px
Location: 40m under seabed between UK and France
Photo credit: © qaphotos.com / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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