http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10638881/China-plans-the-worlds-longest-undersea-tunnel.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10638881/China-plans-the-worlds-longest-undersea-tunnel.html)
QuoteChina is planning another engineering marvel: a tunnel more than twice the length of the Channel Tunnel underneath Bohai Bay
(http://i.imgur.com/QUh6ijW.jpg)
Partial quote from article:
Quote
[/size]At more than twice the length of the Channel Tunnel, China's latest mega project is not short of ambition.
[/size]A 76-mile-long tunnel will run between the northern city of Dalian with Yantai, on the east coast.
[/size]"Work could begin as early as 2015 or 2016," said Wang Mengshu, an expert at the Chinese academy of Engineering, to the China Daily.
[/size]He added that the new tunnel will knock 800 miles off the current route between the two cities.
[/size]It will also form a vital link in a high-speed rail line from China's frozen north to the tropical island of Hainan, in the south.
I am a bit worried that several of the new long tunnels, both planned and constructed, are in places known to be visited by big earthquakes. China is big, so perhaps this is quite some distance away from those regions plagued by earthquakes, but still.
Hopefully the project is done with safety in mind, which seems not to be the current standard in China. A couple of years back a 200 meter long section of a highway bridge collapsed near Guangzhou after a sand barge hit a support pillar. And in 2011 two high-speed trains collided severely after a lightning strike had damaged the other train and signals in the area. Corruption and lack of transparency are not a good recipe for succesful mega-constructions.
Taking out important bridges with barges isn't something unique to China. It's a kind of accident that can happen to anyone that dare put big things in motion.
76 mile tunnel...
I would not want to drive through that in a car.
Maybe the build underground service areas?
Quote from: Ters on February 15, 2014, 11:17:09 AM
I am a bit worried that several of the new long tunnels, both planned and constructed, are in places known to be visited by big earthquakes. China is big, so perhaps this is quite some distance away from those regions plagued by earthquakes, but still.
Just read the linked article, and yes, it's earthquake territory. The tunnel won't pass through just one fault line, but two. I image even a small slip will cause a rather bad kink in the rails.
Quote from: ӔO on February 15, 2014, 09:21:24 PM
76 mile tunnel...
I would not want to drive through that in a car.
You'd have to make do with just a fifth of that. It has brightly decorated halls at intervals to break up the monotony and give people a chance to stop and rest. I actually live by (ok, so it's a few of stone's throws away) the road holding the record for road tunnel, but it's quite some distance from here.
But imagine having to walk out of the Chinese tunnel after an accident.
ah, that's good to hear.
76 miles of monotony is super hypnotic.
Still, using combustion engines inside a long tunnel just doesn't sound like a good idea.
I really wonder how they are going to make a tunnel that is water tight, rigid enough for rail, yet flexible enough to withstand buckling during earthquakes.
And what would happen when an uncontrollable fire breaks out?
when it burns it burns
Fire Department puts out fire
The tunnel will likely be far enough underground that water leaks aren't much of an issue, but fire is certainly a major danger in any long tunnel system (more due to the smoke/air issues than the fire itself).
It looks like Norway addressed the ventilation issue with the Laerdal Tunnel.
Quote from: Sarlock on February 15, 2014, 10:10:32 PM
The tunnel will likely be far enough underground that water leaks aren't much of an issue, but fire is certainly a major danger in any long tunnel system (more due to the smoke/air issues than the fire itself).
It looks like Norway addressed the ventilation issue with the Laerdal Tunnel.
The Chinese tunnel looks like it uses the same solution as many other tunnels: In case of fire, just move over to one of the other tunnels and close the doors. The Lærdal Tunnel does not have this. There was recently a fire in a half as long tunnel nearby on the same road, and the ventilation is supposed to react to fires by possibly changing direction in order to blow the smoke the safest way (whatever way that is). But I think I read that the ventilation system responded opposite of what it should. Fortunately, no one died, but that was almost down to just luck.
Yeah, I once drove the Laerdal tunnel. It was pretty impressive! Now imagine a tunnel which is four times as long. They should have panorama viewpoints in there...
Quote[/size]At more than twice the length of the Channel Tunnel, China's latest mega project is not short of ambition.
[/size]A 76-mile-long tunnel will run between the northern city of Dalian with Yantai, on the east coast.
[/size]"Work could begin as early as 2015 or 2016," said Wang Mengshu, an expert at the Chinese academy of Engineering, to the China Daily.
[/size]He added that the new tunnel will knock 800 miles off the current route between the two cities.
[/size]It will also form a vital link in a high-speed rail line from China's frozen north to the tropical island of Hainan, in the south.
Hi,how are you all? I'm survive .
BTW,This article has lack of information.
a supplementary explanation:
- This tunnel is undersea tunnel.
- China may invest 220 billion yuan ($36 billion(US)) (=26,5 million euro) to build
- the depth of Yellow Sea is only 44m on average. (Wikipedia (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Sea))
Source: http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-14/china-considers-longest-underwater-tunnel-under-bohai-sea.html
I guess that they doesn't consider about maintenance cost.
Seems rather pointless to do so. Going a detour to Yantai to get cargo to the north east isn't much better than going west past Beijing. Likewise for distribution of distribution of the products of Lianings heavy industry to the southern coastal provinces.
Access to the port in Dalian could be done either through feeder ships or just use a shipping port in the south.
Coal is sourced in the west. Liaoning is bordering inner mongolia anyways. Railroad infrastructure seems to be decent.
pure project that is done because they can?
It depends where you are traveling from - from Shanghai to Dalian for example it's 1900km currently, but only 1100km via Yantai. 800km is a fairly substantial saving. Also I doubt cars will drive through it, just like they don't drive through the Channel Tunnel.