Tunnels, railway or automobile, are built to connect cities located on different banks of the reservoir, on different sides of the mountain range, etc.
In most cases, construction is fraught with great difficulties, but this does not prevent engineers from designing amazing roads, the distance of which can exceed the distance from Moscow to Zvenigorod.
In this collection, we will talk about the ten longest road and rail tunnels in the world.
10. Lerdal tunnel in Norway (24 510 m)
Lerdal tunnel in Norway it is located in the west of the country and connects the communes of Lerdal and Aurland. Its construction was started in 1995 and lasted 5 years: during this time the workers managed to pave the way through mountains up to 1,600 meters high.
The tunnel is divided into 4 approximately equal sections by three grottoes (artificial caves), which are the main feature of the structure. The caves were made so that drivers tired of hours of driving could rest and relax a bit, to continue their journey with renewed vigor.
9. Iwate-Itinose in Japan (25,810 m)
Tunnel Iwate-Ichinose located 545 km from the Tokyo station on the Tohoku Shinkansen line, halfway between the cities of Morioko and Hachinohe. It was launched in 2002 along with the railway line.
The maximum depth is about 200 meters, which makes it also one of the deepest in the world. Initially, it was this tunnel that had the longest (from the ground), until in 2007, the Swiss Lötchberg, which we will discuss in more detail below.
8. Hakkoda in Japan (26 455 m)
It is located in central Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan. It passes through the Hakkoda mountain range and connects the village of Tenmabayashi with the city of Aomori.
Tunnel Hakkoda It is part of the northern extension of the Tohoku Shinkansen High Speed Railway and is located between the Shichinohe-Tovada and Sin Aomori stations.
The construction of the tunnel began in 1998 and continued until 2005, when it was partially commissioned. All work was completed only in 2010.
7. Taihanshan in China (27,848 m)
Taihanshan - The third longest mountain railway tunnel in northern China after the New Guanjiao and West Qinling tunnels. This is a double-track tunnel that was built to allow the Sita Passenger Railway to cross the Taihan Mountains. The length of the left track is 27,839 meters (17,298 miles), and the right is 27,848 meters (17,304 miles).
After the opening of the Taihang tunnel and the construction of a high-speed railway, the travel time from Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan was reduced many times: now from one settlement to another you can get to it not in 6 hours, as before, but in just an hour. Construction began on June 11, 2005, and the opening took place on December 22, 2007.
6. Guadarrama in Spain (28 377 m)
Sierra de Guadarrama is a mountain range that forms the main eastern section of the mountain range system along the central part of the Iberian Peninsula. It is located between the Sierra de Gredos in the province of Avila and the Sierra de Aillon in the province of Guadalajara.
Tunnel Gooddarama runs through it and is intended for the movement of railway trains. It consists of two pipes: the western pipe is 28,407 m long, and the eastern pipe is 28,418 m, which makes Guadarrama the longest in Spainexcept for the 12th line of the Madrid metro.
5. New Guan Jiao in China (32,645 m)
New Guan Jiao located on the 2nd line of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the mountains of Guang Jiao, Qinghai province. This is a two-channel railway tunnel with two roads. The total length is 32.645 km (20.285 miles), which makes it the longest railway tunnel in China.
The Chinese Institute of First Research and Design was responsible for the creation of the project, whose staff tried to make it as suitable as possible for the parallel movement of two trains at a speed of up to 160 kilometers per hour (99 miles per hour).
It was assumed that the total duration of the construction will be 5 years, but as a result it was finally put into operation after 7 years.
4. Löchberg in Switzerland (34 577 m)
Line Löchberg located in Switzerland: it connects the city of Spitz in Berne with Brig in Valais. The construction of the railway track in these places was begun in the middle of the 19th century: already in 1859 the first railway was opened here from Bern to Münsingen and Thun.
Subsequently, the line repeatedly increased, expanded and modernized until in 1913 it acquired a finished look. Of course, modern trains do not travel on the rails of 1913, but the bulk of the construction work was completed more than a century ago, which makes the Lötchberg tunnel oldest in our selection.
This place impresses not only with its length, but also with its beauty: the Bichtal bridge, the viaducts of Lygelkin and Kander, the majestic Bernese Alps. If you ride this road for the first time, then it is strongly discouraged to sleep: you will not see such magnificence outside the window anywhere else.
3. Eurotunnel in France and the UK (50,450 m)
A railway tunnel connects the English Folkestone and Kent with the French Coquelier and Pas de Calais, not far from Calais in northern France. This is the only fixed connection between the islands of Great Britain and continental Europe.
At its lowest point, the tunnel runs at a depth of 75 m below the seabed and 115 m below sea level. Limit the speed of trains through Eurotunnel is 160 kilometers per hour. After it was opened in 1994, it became possible to get to Paris from London in just 2 hours 15 minutes, although there are no more than 35 minutes in the train tunnel itself.
Interesting fact: in 1802, French mining engineer Albert Mathieu-Favier put forward a proposal for a tunnel under the English Channel with lighting from oil lamps for the movement of horse-drawn carts, and he also wanted to build an artificial island in the middle of the canal for changing horses. The Mathieu-Favier project provided for a two-level construction with an upper tunnel used for transport and a lower one for underground watercourses. The project was never implemented, but subsequently the achievements of Mathieu-Favier were used by his successors.
2. Seikan in Japan (53,850 m)
Seikan slightly longer than the Eurotunnel, and has a section of 23.3 km under the seabed (the total length of the underwater section is 37.5 km).
it's the same deepest tunnel: he goes down 240 meters. Its implementation required a budget of 538.4 billion yen (about $ 3.6 billion), and Seikan was built from 1971 to 1983, although it was commissioned only in 1988.
1. Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland (57 091 m)
The railway tunnel in Europe through the Alps in Switzerland, opened on June 1, 2016, broke the length record that Seikan held for a long time.
It is part of the New Railroad Crossing the Alps (NRLA) project, which also includes the Ceneri base tunnel to the south (scheduled to open at the end of 2020) and the already mentioned Lötschberg.
If you count the full length "Gotthard", including pedestrian and service walkways, the figure is even more impressive - 153.4 km.