Tunneling is difficult, expensive and dangerous engineering work. Tunnels are built to provide direct automobile or railway routes through mountain ranges, under or over rivers. They can also provide underground channels for water, sewage or oil. Before the 19th century men had not acquired enough skill in engineering to carry out extensive tunneling. Tunnels, however, were known in ancient times. They were, for instance, driven into the rock under the Pyramids of Egypt, and the Romans built one in Rome for their chief drain, parts of which still remain. One of the earliest tunnels known was made in Babylon. It passed under the Euphrates river, and was built of arched brickwork being 12 feet high and 15 feet wide.

Other ancient tunnels were built for water supply and for drainage.

Modern tunnels are often very long and deep. The Simplon Tunnel on the France-to-Italy railway, for example, is 12 miles long and in one place the peaks of the Alps rise over 6,000 feet above it. Some tunnels are over 50 feet in diameter. Many are circular in cross-section. Others are horseshoe- shaped, with a level floor on which it is easy to lay permanent roads and railways.

Tunnel under Channel

Connecting the Isles of Great Britain to mainland Europe is a fantasy that can be dated back nearly 200 years.

We can name very few projects against which there existed a deeper and more powerful prejudice than the construction of a railway tunnel between Dover and Calais.

The objections have been cultural, political and, of course, military. The British government objected to the scheme mainly because they thought that the enemy could easily invade England through such a tunnel.

The first suggestion to construct a tunnel came from Napoleon in 1800. His engineers even drafted a tunnel plan, but Britain and France were at war at that time.

In 1988 the question of a Channel Tunnel was studied afresh by a group of French and British engineers and the work actually began. They agreed to start boring for the Euro tunnel on both English and French Coasts.

The Tunnel runs under the sea through a layer of dense chalk which is known to be free of cracks and allows water to penetrate it slowly.

The work proceeded very quickly and was successfully completed about six years. The Tunnel was opened to traffic on May 7, 1994.

Two main tunnels, with service tunnel between, carry one-way rail traffic.

Original estimate was 7.2 billion dollars at current exchange rates, but cost to date is 13.1 billion dollars shared between Britain, France and other investors. So far the project is not quite profitable and still needs more investments.

Cars and trucks carried by rail make crossing in 35 minutes, about an hour less than by ferry. Passengers remain in their vehicles.

The Tunnel personnel does its best to make passengers feel comfortable and safe during the crossing. But as it was mentioned by the commercial director of the Tunnel, they still have many serious problems and one of them is security. Nevertheless, the authorities are sure to be able to solve all the problems successfully.