51 kilometers long, built by two states, consisting of a two-lane railway track - this project became one of the most ambitious at the end of the twentieth century. That is why it still attracts the close attention of the curious.
The idea to connect continental Europe and Foggy Albion has been in the air for a long time. More precisely, already in the middle of the eighteenth century, at the official level, they began to talk about such a possibility. Finally, the University of Amiens announced a competition for the best tunnel design. It was won by a certain Nicola Demare, whose manuscript on the unification of England with France earned the first prize. But so far it was only a theory.
From theory to practice
Only at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the engineer Albert Mathieu-Favier made a proposal for a tunnel that could be dug 10 meters below the seabed of the strait. Horse teams were chosen to carry out the work. The problem of lighting was proposed to be solved with the help of oil lamps, and for air exchange it was supposed to make air ducts located above 5 meters above sea level.
But this project also remained on paper for almost 32 years. In 1832, seven more proposals appeared from the French side of the engineer Aimé Tome de Gamon. One of them received the approval of the French side. It was up to England. It was not until 1876 that the parliaments on both sides gave permission for the construction, which began on both sides in 1881.
However, due to the deterioration of relations between the countries, construction had to be stopped for more than 100 years. Only in the 80s did England and France renew their construction plans and announced a tender.
The winner was the Euro Tunnel project, which provided maximum manufacturability at minimum costs. The construction itself began in 1987 when nine tunneling shields got down to business. Each of them was about 200 meters long with eight-meter rotors and tungsten carbide cutters. In total, three tunnels were laid (two main and one service), as well as a separate overland one.
More than 8 thousand workers and 5 thousand engineers from two countries took part in the project. Completed construction and finishing in 1994.
To date
Currently, the Eurotunnel is a two-lane railway tunnel with a total length of 51 kilometers, where 39 lies on the English Channel itself.
Interestingly, it was not always used for its intended purpose. For example, if you get on a passenger train or hide in a cargo container, you can become an illegal refugee migrant from one country to another. At least in the twentieth century, it was. Now it is somewhat more difficult, since there is listening equipment in the tunnel, which helps to find people in the containers.
Over the years of operation, 5 major accidents occurred in the tunnel, which did not entail human casualties. And the tunnel itself and the company serving it were on the verge of bankruptcy twice, but everything was safely resolved
To date, about 10 million people annually use the opportunity to get from London to Paris in 2.5 hours.
