Tunnel between England and France. The famous Channel Tunnel Post about the Channel Tunnel

1. The length of the Channel Tunnel is 51 km, of which 39 pass directly under the strait. Trains traveling from London to Paris and back spend 20 to 35 minutes in the tunnel.

2. Thanks to the Eurotunnel, you can travel from Paris to London by train in just 2 hours and 15 minutes.

3. Contrary to misconception, the English Channel Tunnel is not the longest railway tunnel in the world, but only ranks third. The second place is at the Japanese Seikan tunnel, connecting the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, the length of which is 53.85 km. And the longest in the world is the Gotthard railway tunnel in the Swiss Alps, the official opening of which is scheduled for 2017. Its length is 57 km.

Strait of the English Channel. Satellite image. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

4. The idea of ​​building a tunnel connecting England and continental Europe was first mooted at the beginning of the 19th century, but was rejected for a long time due to British fears that the structure could be used for a military invasion of the island.

5. Construction of the tunnel began in 1881 and 1922. For the first time, the builders managed to cover 2026 meters on the English side and 1829 meters on the French side. In the second, tunnel drilling stopped at only 128 meters. Both times construction was interrupted for political reasons.

6. In the post-war period, the Channel Tunnel project progressed extremely slowly. The research team began work in 1957, the project was approved in 1973, after which it was frozen again, and the actual construction of the tunnel began only on December 15, 1987.

Channel Tunnel Project, ca. 1960. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

7. The Eurotunnel technically consists of three tunnels - two main ones, which have a track for trains going north and south, and one small service tunnel. The service tunnel has passages every 375 meters that connect it with the main ones. It is designed for access to the main tunnels of maintenance personnel and emergency evacuation of people in case of danger.

8. Road transport travels through the Channel Tunnel in special trains. At the same time, drivers and passengers of passenger cars transported by Eurotunnel Shuttle trains do not leave their vehicles. The procedure for loading a car into a carriage takes no more than eight minutes.

Construction of the Channel Tunnel, 1993. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

9. Over the twenty years of operation of the Eurotunnel, seven major incidents occurred in it, due to which the normal operation of the tunnel was disrupted for a period of from several hours to several months. Most of the incidents were related to fires, however, thanks to the professional actions of rescuers, casualties were avoided.

10. A total of about £10 billion was spent on the construction of the Eurotunnel, and the project cost of construction was exceeded by 80 percent. According to experts, the payback period of the project may exceed 1000 years.

The Channel Tunnel, one of the wonders of modern engineering, I first learned about it from the magazine “Technology for Youth”, in 1988, or a little later. The tunnel was just under construction at that time, and I, a Soviet “October” from the Urals, did not even imagine that I would one day ride through this very English Channel. To be fair, it must be said that the tunnel connecting Britain and France is not the longest underwater tunnel in the world; it was surpassed by Seikan in Japan, leading to the island of Hokkaido. The European tunnel is 50 kilometers long, and the Japanese one is 55. It’s just that the European tunnel is, for obvious reasons, more “promoted”. Contrary to the popular belief that the tunnel contains both a highway and a railway, in fact there are only rails there; there is no road through the tunnel. It is impossible to drive your car through the Channel Tunnel; your car will simply be loaded onto a freight train that will take you in the right direction. Buses and heavy-duty trucks will also enter there.

Train travel from London to Brussels and Paris starts from Pancras station, you can buy a ticket from a machine on the spot, or buy it in advance on the Eurostar website. It’s better to buy in advance; it will be significantly cheaper, sometimes up to 50-60 euros. The vast majority of people arrive at the station 30-40 minutes before the train departs and have printed electronic tickets in their hands. You apply this ticket to the reader and enter the control area -

Yes, you guessed it, French (Schengen) passport control is carried out right at London train station. The logic is simple: if you don’t have a Schengen visa, then it’s easier to “turn it in” right here, rather than take it to France and then think about how to send it back. Exactly the same system on the French side, where when the train departs from Paris/Brussels to the UK, the British check your passports at Brussels and Paris stations -

Then follow the signs to the desired platform, in principle everything is clear -

Two trains leave 3 minutes apart, one to Paris, the other to Brussels -

My train is Brussels -

Friends, you were probably waiting for a lot of photos from the Channel Tunnel? But they do not exist and cannot exist. Do you know what crossing a tunnel looks like? First, just starting from London, the train picks up enormous speed (up to 330 km/h) and in half an hour “flies” to the coast, where it goes into a tunnel and rushes in pitch darkness under the bottom of the strait for another fifteen minutes. And then it takes off on the French side. Absolutely nothing is visible and there is absolutely nothing to photograph.

Already at the entrance to the city of Calais you see double rows of fences with barbed wire stretching along the line. They perform two tasks: the first, of course, is the safety of the tunnel itself (imagine a version of “September 11” under the English Channel, this is the plot for a Hollywood disaster blogbuster, how the tunnel flies up into the air and the depths of the sea absorb the trains, and no tearful Leonardo Di Caprio will not save), and the second reason is more prosaic - illegal migrants. There are tens of thousands of them on the French side of the English Channel and they are all trying to break into Great Britain at any cost. Often, illegal immigrants who climbed through the fence and ran into the tunnel are hit by trains.

Train station in the French city of Calais -

Don't think that the train is running empty or anything like that. It’s just that I photographed it after arriving in Brussels, when the passengers got off the platform. In fact, the trains are full to capacity!

Actually, the final station, Brussels-Midi -

The idea of ​​connecting Great Britain with the continental part of Europe with the help of a single engineering structure has visited the best minds on both sides of the strait for several centuries. Calculations were even made to determine which was preferable: a bridge or a tunnel. Napoleon Bonaparte intended to begin construction, but some historical circumstances prevented this. The actual Channel Tunnel was only put into operation at the end of the twentieth century. Not counting preliminary preparations, the actual construction work took about seven years.

Channel Tunnel. Characteristic

There were many construction projects. The one that was ultimately chosen turned out to be optimal both technically and economically. The length of the Channel tunnel is 51 kilometers, of which 39 are located directly under the strait itself. A railway tunnel operating in both directions simultaneously. Ensures the passage of both freight and passenger trains. A significant part of the cargo turnover is made up of passenger car traffic on open platforms. The Channel Tunnel allows you to get from London to Paris or back in just over two hours. It takes from twenty minutes to half an hour to overcome the tunnel itself.

Driving is carried out in accordance with English rules: on the left. the entire distance of the journey allows the train to develop a sufficiently high speed. The most surprising thing is that the grandiose Channel Tunnel is not at all the largest in the world. It is inferior to the Japanese Seikan and the Swiss

Some technical details

In fact, the Eurotunnel, as it is often called, consists of three parallel underground structures. Two of them carry traffic in opposite directions. And between them there is a third one, of smaller diameter. Every 375 meters it has exits to the main highways. The middle tunnel performs the functions of technical support and repair. It also allows you to establish stable ventilation throughout the entire underground space and avoid the so-called piston effect - high air pressure in front of a moving locomotive. In addition, it is designed to ensure the safety of all transport communications. In the event of an emergency, passengers must be evacuated along it. occurred several times over the two decades of operation of the tunnel, but the system managed to prove its reliability during its operation.

It seems that the French and English have a penchant for long-term joint projects. There are more than enough examples in history: the Hundred Years' War, which they entered in 1337, lasted for 116 years, the project to create the supersonic Concorde aircraft took two decades. And one of the most ambitious construction projects of the 20th century - the Channel Tunnel - began back in 1881. Then the matter did not move beyond the station facilities, but now many people do not understand how they even managed to get to the British Isles when there was no tunnel.

The British have always been and continue to be proud of their isolation from the rest of Europe. They did not switch to the euro and did not join the European Union. The English approach to integration is perfectly characterized by a story dating back to 1858. That year, the question of building a tunnel across the English Channel was first raised in the English Parliament. Hearing this, Lord Palmerston, at that time the Prime Minister of Great Britain, was indignant: “What? Do you dare ask for money for a cause whose purpose is to shorten a distance that we consider already too short?” Against this background, it seems surprising how the inhabitants of Albion decided to build a tunnel to continental Europe. However, no less striking is the tenacity with which French and English engineers proposed projects for a land connection between the two states: in the period from 1883 to 1941 alone, more than 300 (!) different projects for bridges and tunnels were presented.

Underground Cavalry

The idea of ​​establishing a land connection between the continent and the British Isles was born in the middle of the 18th century, when the University of Amiens announced a competition for the best project to connect the two states. The first real tunnel project dates back to 1802. It was developed by Albert Mathieu. The Frenchman proposed to build a tunnel at a depth of about 10 meters from the bottom of the strait for the movement of horse-drawn carriages, illuminate it with oil lamps, and use special shafts for ventilation, which were supposed to rise five meters above the surface of the water. It is known that Napoleon was familiar with Mathieu's project. Did it interest him? History stores exactly the opposite information. According to one version, the tunnel seemed like a crazy idea to Napoleon. According to another, he personally proposed to the British to connect their countries with an underground road.

International metro

With the rapid development of the railway network in England, the horse-drawn versions of the tunnel were replaced by rail ones. The main promoter of such projects was the French mining engineer Thomas de Gamon in the 19th century. It is known that the Frenchman was so fanatical about connecting the continent with the island that he spent more than 30 years carefully studying seven alternative projects. Among them was such an extravagant connection option as a giant bridge resting on bulk islands. In 1860, the new project for the de Gamon tunnel was approved by Napoleon III and Queen Victoria, but the Frenchman’s dream did not come true - construction did not come to fruition.

In the 1870s, relations between the French and the British warmed sharply. After the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the French invited the British to unite to counter a new strong enemy - the German Kaiser. Neighbors began to re-develop the tunnel project.

Victorian engineers achieved great success in tunneling. In 1843, they were the first in the world to construct a tunnel under the Thames with a tunnel shield, and then gained enormous experience in this area during the construction of the world's first London Underground. Therefore, technically, building a tunnel under the English Channel did not pose a big problem. In 1881, two tunneling shields of the company were launched towards each other. Beaumont & English" - the most powerful and technically advanced at that time. In the first year, approximately 2 km of track was dug on both sides: it was expected that the underground meeting of workers would take place in five years. However, in 1883, construction of the Channel Tunnel was stopped. English politicians and journalists increasingly made statements that the tunnel would be a wonderful gift for their potential enemy - in the event of a conflict, the French could easily attack Britain through the tunnel. Until the Second World War, all projects for tunnels or bridges across the English Channel met with severe resistance from the British government. Attitudes towards the project changed only in the mid-1950s.

The tunnel is not so scary...

When the Second World War ended, it became clear that with the advent of new modes of transport and weapons, the tunnel no longer posed a real threat to British defense. This was publicly announced by the UK Ministry of Defense in 1955. Meanwhile, commodity exchange between the island and the continent increased steadily. Therefore, in the summer of 1957, an Anglo-French research group was formed to find out whether it was necessary to connect the two states and, if so, how. By the early 1960s, two alternatives were competing - the tunnel project and the bridge project. According to the first project, it was planned to build a complex railway tunnel under the bottom of the strait, consisting of two working hoses and a service one between them. This project was in competition with the giant bridge project, which was warmly supported by the heads of metallurgical concerns. In the end, the underground project won, but the approval process was delayed. After construction of the tunnel began in 1974, financing problems arose. A year later the project was suspended.

The topic of the tunnel was returned to again only in 1984, when the governments of the two countries announced an open tender for a project that would connect the UK with France. In the fall of 1985, four independent development groups proposed their options.

The most extravagant project was Europont— a 52-kilometer bridge with spans suspended on Kevlar threads. The project was quickly rejected as too expensive and based on as yet untested technology. Another project - Euroroute— proposed a complex system of bridges and tunnels with support points on specially built artificial islands.

Project Channel Expressway It was a two-level tunnel with rail and road connections. Both of these projects were preferred Eurotunnel- the cheapest and easiest to build alternative, which was based on the tunnel concept of the 1970s. According to preliminary calculations of the developers, the implementation of the project Eurotunnel was valued at £5 billion.

However, this amount also seemed too high for the governments of both European countries: in January 1986, Margaret Thatcher and Francois Mitterrand jointly announced that they considered the project too expensive to spend taxpayers' money on.

Rails vs freeway

Project Channel Expressway lost to the project Eurotunnel not only because of the higher cost. It was decided that driving a car through a 50-kilometer tunnel would require a lot of physical and mental stress from drivers, which could lead to stressful situations and accidents. In addition, a more effective solution required the issue of cleaning the tunnel from exhaust gases. The most preferable option is the transportation of cars on electric train platforms.

But such a statement did not mean that the project was postponed again. A way out of the situation was found. We decided to organize an open joint stock company " Eurotunnel", the initial capital of which was to be provided by construction companies with the support of private banks (without state support). The newly formed company had to independently find money for the construction of the tunnel, including through the sale of its shares. As a token of gratitude, she received the right to manage the structure for 55 years. At the end of this period, the tunnel in working order should be handed over to the governments of France and Great Britain.

New story

The further fate of the Channel Tunnel is well known. On December 15, 1987, the first tunneling shield went into operation - it was digging a service tunnel with a diameter of 4.8 m. Then more powerful tunneling machines joined in, digging two main tunnels with a diameter of 7.6 m each. In total, deep in the tunnel, 11 shields worked simultaneously almost without interruption. Three French and three English shields moved towards each other under the bottom of the English Channel. Three more were digging a tunnel deep into the island towards the British terminal, and two were drilling three tunnels towards the French terminal. A 39 km tunnel was dug directly at the bottom of the sea, and its total length was 51 km.

A laser positioning system was used to ensure that both ends met at the same location. Thanks to her, workers from England and France met at the intended point on December 1, 1990, at a depth of 40 m from the bottom of the strait. The error was only 358 mm horizontally and 58 mm vertically. By the way, English and French drillers did the last meters of the tunnel manually - using picks and shovels.

The Eurotunnel was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II and François Mitterrand on May 6, 1994. One of humanity's longest projects was completed in just seven years. 13 thousand workers and engineers took part in its creation, and about 10 billion pounds sterling was spent on construction (taking into account inflation, almost twice as much as originally expected). The dream of Tomé de Gamon and hundreds of other project supporters has finally come true!

The grandiose project of the twentieth century has not yet justified itself financially: only in April 2008 the company “ Eurotunnel» announced annual profits for the first time since its inception. A child that has been gestated for a long time, it seems, also has a long payoff...

Illustrations for the article provided by the company Eurotunnel.

English Channel Bridge

This is what the magazine “Science and Life” wrote about the next project of a bridge across the English Channel in No. 1 for 1890.

Without exaggeration, this century can be called the century of gigantic structures, one of which was the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Exhibition. Now a new, even more grandiose and important structure is being prepared - a bridge across the English Channel, dividing France from England. This bridge will be 28 kilometers long (almost the same number of miles).

The question of connecting England with France by bridge or tunnel has arisen for a long time. In 1873, the issue of a Channel Tunnel was seriously raised. All necessary studies have been carried out; the feasibility of the enterprise was fully proven; its benefit for both countries was undoubted; There were also capitalists who provided money for the implementation of the enterprise. The underwater tunnel project, however, failed due to political considerations. Since the ground forces of England are insignificant, there was a fear that troops could be landed through the tunnel to England. Now a project has arisen to connect England with France not under water, but over water through a bridge of unheard-of size.

In England, a company was formed with huge capital " Channel Bridge" Two famous English engineers took on the technical side of the matter: John Fowler ( Fowler) and Benjamin Becker ( Baker) and two famous French ones: Mr. Schneider and Mr. Gersan ( Hersent), managing one of the largest mechanical factories in the world in Creusot. These four engineers carried out all the necessary research and have already developed a detailed design for a bridge across the English Channel.

The bridge is supposed to be built at the narrowest point of the strait, between Gris-Nez(from France) and Foxton (from England). The distance between these two points in a straight line is less than 28 kilometers; but the bridge will make a slight curve to take advantage of two existing shallows (Varnska and Kolbarska banks). On these shallows the sea depth is only 6-7 meters, which will significantly reduce the cost of building abutment towers. The greatest depth of the sea in this direction is 55 meters (27 fathoms) at low tide.

Thus, it is necessary: ​​1) to build abutments (hereinafter we will call them towers due to their extraordinary size) at great depths; 2) raise the bridge itself so that the largest sea vessels can pass under it. According to the preliminary draft ( Arant-Projet), builders think of achieving it this way.

The towers (abutments) of the bridge will be made of granite with steel fasteners. You can get an idea of ​​the size of these towers from the fact that the largest of them (at a depth of 55 meters) will have a base area of ​​1604 square meters. Only steel will be used throughout due to its strength. To build the towers, 76,000 tons of steel and 4 million cubic meters of granite will be required. The superstructure of the bridge will also require another 772,000 tons of steel. The total cost of construction is estimated at 860 million francs, but could reach a billion.

The construction of the towers is carried out using iron caissons, from granite blocks held together with steel ties and cement. The stonework rises above the surface of the water by 21 meters at low tide and 14 meters at high tide (the English Channel level fluctuates by 7 meters). Therefore, at a depth of 55 meters, the masonry would be 76 meters high, assuming that the masonry begins directly on the seabed.

The stone towers will each be topped by two steel towers. The latter will be held together by huge steel beams and have a height of 40 meters. The rails will lie another 11 meters higher, so that trains will run at an altitude of 72 meters (about 35 1/2 fathoms) from the surface of the sea (at low tide). But the steel cover goes above the level of the rails by another 54 meters. Thus, the main tower, placed at a depth of 55 meters, will have a total height of 181 meters (90 fathoms), including 76 meters of masonry. The bridge spans in deep places will be alternately 500 and 300 meters; at smaller ones of 350 and 200 meters, also alternately; finally, near the coast the spans will alternate at 250-100 meters. Flights of 500 meters (half a mile) are more difficult than the Eiffel Tower. But technology has made such enormous strides in recent years that the feasibility of this grandiose project is quite and undoubtedly possible.

The Thames, on which the English capital London stands, was a left tributary, on the banks of which lies the German River. When they melted, sea levels rose, and vast areas became the bottom of the English Channel. Britain became an island. However, the idea of ​​​​reconnecting the two most important parts of Europe by land has long been the cherished dream of the inhabitants of the Old World.

For two centuries, scientists have been developing different ways to overcome the English Channel. The tunnel project was first proposed more than 100 years ago, in 1802. Albert Mathieu proposed a project for crossing the English Channel, and the next year a similar plan arose on the other side, in England. True, at that time they were more inclined to build a bridge that would pass over the strait. This gigantic structure was supposed to consist of five-kilometer spans suspended above the sea on heavy-duty cables. The idea was rejected - such gigantic bridges had never been built before, and experts doubted: would the structure be reliable? There were also completely unusual proposals. For example, about erecting artificial islands throughout the entire strait, and from these islands stretching bridges that connect with each other. But this was an even more unrealistic project. It was decided to stop at building an underground road.

The idea of ​​building a road leading from France to England had many opponents. Many people said that in the event of a war between two countries, this tunnel could be used against the enemy. However, even then this objection was considered absurd. After all, if there is a threat of attack, it is very easy to quickly block the tunnel by blowing up or filling up even a small part of it. And the troops at the exit of the tunnel are more of a convenient target than a formidable force.

For a long time everything remained at the level of projects and plans. They started thinking seriously about building a tunnel only in 1955. They even started construction and started digging pits. However, nothing came of this venture. Two years later, the energy crisis forced workers and engineers to abandon the dug pits, which quickly filled with rainwater. Only 11 years later, the governments of England and France announced that they were ready to again consider the possibility of a land connection between the two. But with one condition - all work must be carried out by private companies at their own expense.

9 of the best projects were selected, and for a whole year there was serious debate about which one deserved more attention. A year later, according to the majority, the best was chosen. It was supposed to lay railway tracks and highways for cars next to each other. However, the road under the strait had to be abandoned. First, a car accident in a tunnel is much more likely than a train crash. But the consequences of such an accident in a long underground “pipe” can be serious and paralyze traffic for a long time. Secondly, an armada of cars rushing into the tunnel would inevitably fill it with exhaust fumes, which means a very powerful ventilation system would be required to constantly clean the air. Well, thirdly, it is known that traveling in a tunnel tires the driver. We decided to go with the design, which was described in the 1960 project and finalized in the mid-70s.

Work began on the English coast in December 1987, and on the French coast three months later. Huge machines with rotating cutting heads laid a kilometer a month. In total, the construction of the tunnel took three years.

The tunnels were laid, on average, 45 meters below the seabed. When the two halves of the service tunnel were separated by only 100 meters, a small tunnel was dug by hand to connect them. Until the moment of docking, 120 mine locomotives removed rock from the faces, monthly traveling a distance equal to two distances around the earth. The workers met at the end of 1990.

The completion of the two railway tunnels took place on June 28, 1991. However, do not think that the construction was completely completed. Only the central tunnel was completed. And it was still necessary to dig a second, service tunnel, and also lay rails. More than 2,000 companies took part in the international competition for the right to receive an order for rails for the strait. French customers preferred those made in Russia.

The tunnel was completely opened relatively recently - on May 6, 1994. Queen Elizabeth II herself and President Mitterrand took part in its opening. After the ceremonial part, the Queen took the train and arrived from London Waterloo station to the town of Calais on the French coast. In turn, Mitterrand arrived there from the Gare do Nord station in Paris via Lille. As the locomotives of the two trains stopped nose to nose, the two heads of state cut the blue, white and red ribbons to the sounds of their countries' national anthems, which were performed by the band of the French Republican Guard. Then the British and French delegations in Rolls-Royce cars crossed the tunnel to the British coast, to the town of Folkestone, where exactly the same ceremony took place as on the French side.

Features of the Channel Tunnel

In reality, there are three tunnels: two railway tunnels (one receives trains from France to England, the other from England to France) and one performs operational functions. Currently, this is the fastest route from London to Paris or (about 3). Passenger trains depart regularly from London Waterloo and take you to Paris's Gare du Nord or Brussels' Midi-Zuid.

The diameter of each tunnel is 7.3 meters, the length is about 50 kilometers, of which 37 pass under the water column. All tunnels are clad in dense concrete frames, the walls of which are about 40 centimeters.

Special trains with platforms for cars and carriages for passengers depart every hour. In total, 350 electric locomotives pass through the tunnel per day, which makes it possible to transport more than 200,000 tons of cargo. Cars use the tunnel trains as a moving highway. They enter the carriage at one end and exit at the other after a 35-minute journey. Electric locomotives reach speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour.

There are many incidents associated with the Channel Tunnel. For example, on October 12, 2003, an unknown person was discovered there who lived in a tunnel for ... 2 years, occasionally coming to the surface to stock up on food and water. It is strange that it was not discovered earlier, since a system of internal surveillance cameras is stretched along the entire length of the tunnel.

The following year, an emergency occurred: an employee of the English branch of Eurostar discovered 15 people on the railway tracks. Some of them were wounded, one very seriously. According to a British police spokesman, illegal immigrants (presumably Turks) were most likely found in the tunnel. Apparently, intending to get to England, they climbed into one of the carriages of the freight train while still on the mainland, and then jumped off while moving in the place where the train slows down a little at the exit of the tunnel.

However, such violations are suppressed. For this purpose, there is a serious security service working 24 hours a day.

The entire project cost £10 billion - twice as much as planned. A year after its official opening, Eurotunnel announced losses of £925 million - one of the biggest negative amounts in British corporate history. Additionally, in 1996, freight traffic through the tunnel was suspended for 6 months due to a fire caused by a truck that caught fire.

Although the tunnel project was very expensive and the costs have not yet been recouped, the structure still represents an example of modern engineering excellence, taking safety and functionality into account in equal measure.