Tunnels
Roman Tunnel Tunnels, you can find them everywhere. Some tunnels are quite public and you can read about them in books and on the internet. Then there are those tunnels that the military has dug, that are quite secret. At the rate that the military has been digging, there are probably more miles of military tunnels hidden from the public, than there are miles of public tunnels. Still tunnels are interesting and their construction quite fascinating. It is hard to believe that societies that existed thousands of years ago actually dug tunnels through mountains without the benefit of the modern equipment that we use today. I had wondered how the Romans could dig miles long tunnels this way and I found out that they used a method that was quite ingenious, but time consuming. They would build a large fire next to the part of the mountain that they wanted to create the tunnel in and when the rock got really hot, they would throw cold water on it cracking the rock so that they could remove it and then they would start all over again. This way they were able to go deeper and deeper into the mountain.
Yucca Mountain Boring Machine Today we like to build our tunnels a little faster. Taking anywhere from 40 to 100 years is just too long. We are a very impatient race, except for the Chinese of course, who are very patient. We use machines that are so big that they resemble railroad trains in length, only instead of an engine and cars, we have a huge boring machine with conveyor belts attached to it. The tunnels that they create can be anywhere from one meter to 16 meters in diameter and I hear that bigger machines are coming. Their speed varies depending what they are digging through. Just in case you would like to know who invented the first tunnel boring machine, the answer is that it was invented by Henri-Joseph Maus and was called the Mountain Slicer. It was used to dig the Frejus Rail Tunnel between France and Italy, and dug through the Alps to do this, It was built in 1846. It had been commissioned by the king of Sardinia. When we talk about deep tunnels there are certain ones that have to be considered extremely deep. This will not rival what I have been hearing about the depth of some of the military tunnels however. The Seikan Tunnel is said to be the deepest rail tunnel in the world. It is located beneath the Tsugaru Strait. It was built by the Japanese in 1988 and they still own it. It is almost 33.5 miles long and 14.5 of those miles are under the seabed. The tunnels maximum depth is 787 feet. The Seikan Tunnel is longer than the Channel Tunnel or Chunnel, but the Chunnel has a longer portion under the seabed and only goes down 246 feet at maximum depth. While the Seikan Tunnel is the deepest railway tunnel, it is not the deepest tunnel, that honor goes to the Eiksund Tunnel in Norway. That tunnel goes to a maximum depth of 942 feet. The tunnel is fairly new, having been opened in 2008. The tunnel was not built alone, along with its construction there were sister projects going on at the same time. They were the Eiksund Bridge and the Helgehorn Tunnel. These were all part of the highway system. While not as deep as any of the tunnels mentioned so far, there is a new tunnel being built that will be the deepest tube tunnel. It is simply a tube that is 430 feet long, that will connect to other tubes. It will go down to 197 feet below sea level and is being built in the Istanbul Strait. The tube type tunnel was desirable, since the region experiences earthquakes and it is said that this type of construction is the safest in that environment. Archaeological discoveries have slowed down the progress of the work and it is now a few years behind schedule. I guess that is the problem with digging in Turkey, since that country has more ancient ruins than anywhere else on earth. Another deep undersea tunnel that is under construction is the Atlantic Ocean Tunnel. It is being built in Norway and is projected to be 18,920 feet long and will go to a depth of 820 feet. It was begun in 2006 and was supposed to be finished this year (2009). One of the problems is that no one wants to travel in a tunnel under the sea that leaks. The leaks have caused cost overruns as well as delays.
Air Force Boring Machine The secret military tunnels in the United States are said to connect bases in some instances and in others lead to underground bunkers miles under the earth. It is said that the United States military now posses laser boring machines that not only dig tunnels much quicker, but fuse the walls of the tunnel as the machine goes through, giving them a finish so that no other work is required on them. If the rumors are to be believed, most of the tunneling is under existing military bases and why not, some of them are larger than small countries. One article I read states that we now have 129 deep military bases and that the digging never stops day or night. They are said to be more like cities underground and the average depth is said to be at least a mile with some much deeper. The underground bases are said to extend for about a mile with some much further. All this digging is said to be part of Project Camelot. Lastly there are stories of ancient tribes in South America building deep underground tunnels. It is said that they tied them in with natural fishers in the earth. Could there be more ancient tunnels that are a lot longer than the ones that we have found? There is always the chance of finding something like this. Who knows, when the Maya disappeared, maybe they went underground? |
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