As you know, the shortest path from point A to point B is a straight line. But what to do if it is impossible to pave the road in a straight line because of a mountain, river or sea blocking the path? This problem is often solved by building a tunnel underground. Modern tunnels represent a real challenge to nature; their complex design is a masterpiece of engineering. In addition, some tunnels are also distinguished by their unusual appearance, due to the features of the landscape or the imagination of the architect. Here is a selection of the most impressive tunnels from around the world.

10 PHOTOS

The material was prepared with the support of the site les-kodru.com.ua - environmentally friendly materials for construction. Building houses is not that difficult. like the construction of tunnels, but it also requires careful selection good materials. One of these is deck board, used in the construction of verandas, terraces and gazebos.

The project to create a tunnel under the Bosphorus Strait connecting the European and Asian parts of Istanbul started in 2004 and cost the state $3.5 billion. The total length of the tunnel is 13.6 km. Interestingly, sections of the tunnel, which are located 60 meters below sea level, have flexible connections to absorb the energy of tremors. The name "Marmaray" comes from the Turkish words "Marmara", meaning Sea of ​​Marmara, and "ray", meaning rail.

The Eisenhower Road Tunnel is notable for being one of the tallest tunnels in the world. Its height above sea level is 3,401 meters.

A railway tunnel that runs through the Alps and provides freight transportation from north to west of the country. At the moment it is the longest railway tunnel in the world - its total length is 57.1 km. Although construction work has already been completed, the opening of the tunnel is planned only in June of this year.

This above-ground railway tunnel is an amazing botanical phenomenon. The arched green tunnel was created not by human hands, but by a natural interweaving of trees and bushes. The Tunnel of Love is a popular place of pilgrimage for tourists, especially couples in love. In 2014, Japanese director Akiyoshi Imazaki shot the film “Klevan: Tunnel of Love,” the plot of which is directly related to the Ukrainian tunnel.

The railway tunnel under the English Channel connecting France and Great Britain. The tunnel is approximately 51 km long, but you can travel from Paris to London via the Eurotunnel TGV in just 2 hours and 15 minutes.

This tunnel, which runs 647 meters under the Huangpu River and connects the Bund and Pudong districts, is very popular among tourists. The fact is that the Bund tunnel is not so much a means of transportation as an exciting attraction for entertainment. Its optical technology combined with musical accompaniment makes traveling through the Bund Tunnel an unforgettable experience.

A tunnel in the rock, made under the Judah king Hezekiah to provide the city with water. It served to supply water from the spring of Gion to the Pond of Siloam. Today, a visit to the Siloam Tunnel is included in the program of most excursions in Jerusalem. The tunnel itself is included in the City of David archaeological park complex.

This tunnel, carved into the slopes of the Bernese Alps, opens directly onto the Aletsch Glacier, located next to the beautiful peaks of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau mountains. As you exit the Jungfraujoch Tunnel, you will immediately be able to admire a dizzying panorama of the landscape of Switzerland, France and Germany.

The Guoliang Road Tunnel is a real landmark in China. The tunnel, about 1,200 meters long and only 4 meters wide, was built by 12 local residents. An interesting feature of the tunnel is that it is partially open - this was done for the purpose of lighting.

The longest road tunnel in the world, the Lærdal Tunnel runs through the mountains and is part of the highway between Oslo and Bergen. The total length of the tunnel is 24.5 km.

The longest and deepest tunnel in the world, running under the Swiss Alps, has finally opened! To mark this occasion, in this article we will look at the longest railway tunnels in the world.

So, let's go!

10. Gumzang Tunnel, South Korea - 20.3 km

(Geumjeong Tunnel)

Gumzangl is ranked tenth on the list of the longest railway tunnels in the world. It is part of the Seoul-Busan High Speed ​​Railway. A tunnel buried in the mountains connects the Nopo area with Busanjin Station in Busan.

Also, Gumzangl is the longest railway tunnel in South Korea. It is located at a depth of more than 300 m from the ground. Its width is 14 meters, height 12. The tunnel belongs to the South Korean Railway Administration.

Construction of the tunnel, which was completed in 2009, took place in three sections. The first two sites were opened in 2008. The last section, connecting Nopo-dong and Hwameong-dong, was completed in February 2009.

9. Wushaoling Tunnel, China - 21.05 km

(Wushaoling Tunnel)

Wushaoling, a railway tunnel in Gansu province in northwestern China, was the country's longest tunnel until the end of 2007. Located on the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway crossing the Wushaoling Mountains. After the tunnel was put into operation, the road between Lanzhou and Urumqi was shortened by 30.4 km and became completely double-track.

The tunnel consists of two parallel threads, laid at a distance of 40 meters from each other. The portal on the Lanzhou side is located at an altitude of 2663 m, the opposite portal is at an altitude of 2447 m. During the construction of the tunnel, a new Austrian tunneling method was used; the tunnel equipment allows trains to pass at speeds of up to 160 km/h. The eastern line of the Wushaoling tunnel was put into operation in March 2006, the western line in August 2006. The total construction cost was 7.8 billion yuan.

22,221 km

(Daishimizu Tunnel)

Daismizu Tunnel, Japan. Photo: Nihongarden/Wikimedia Commons

A railway tunnel on the Jōetsu Shinkansen high-speed line on the border of Gunma and Niigata prefectures.

In 1978, construction of the Dai-Shimizu Tunnel was completed. This tunnel was dug specifically for the Joetsu Shinkansen line, which was scheduled to be completed in 1982. This tunnel was the longest tunnel in the world. During construction, a fire broke out in the tunnel, resulting in very heavy smoke - 16 workers died from carbon monoxide poisoning. The Daismizu Tunnel reduced travel time between Niigata and Tokyo to approximately one hour and forty minutes, three hours faster than the regular Joetsu Line.

In addition, during the construction of the tunnel, potable natural mineral water was discovered, which is still sold in bottles to this day.

24 km

(Wienerwald Tunnel)

The 13.35 kilometer long railway tunnel near Vienna, which has been in operation since December 9, 2012, runs under the northern part of the Wienerwald between Gablitz and Mauerbach. This section of the new section, with speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour, between Vienna and St. Pölten, is part of the Austrian Western Railway.

The Vienna-St. Pölten section, the current four-way and largest railway corridor in the Westbahn, received two new high-speed branches extending far north of the original line. The largest superstructure is a tunnel that crosses the Wienerwald mountains.

11 km from the western portal of the Wienerwald Tunnel, a double-pipe tunnel (a tunnel consisting of two connected single-track pipes) was built, and the rest is a double-track single-pipe section. Construction of the single-pipe section began in the fall of 2004 using blasting and drilling. The tunnel drilling was completed two years later, structural work was completed in February 2010, and road construction began in the summer of 2010.

The Wienerwald Tunnel is only part of the tunnel complex: its eastern (Viennese) portal ends with an underground passage into a 2.2 km long tunnel with two additional lines for the old Westbahn (which has already been in operation since December 2008) and the Lainzer Tunnel - single-pipe, double-track tunnel with a length of 11.73 km, which opened in 2012). The eastern portal of the Lainzer Tunnel branches into two portals. A total of 24 km of the Wienerwald and Lainzer Tunnel allow travelers along the Westbahn to visit Vienna's new main station. This tunnel is the longest tunnel in Austria.

6. Iwate-Ichinohe Tunnel, Japan - 25,810 km

(Iwate-Ichinohe Tunnel)

The Japanese Iwate-Ichinohe Overland Rail Tunnel is part of the Tohoku Shinkansen line connecting Tokyo with Aomori. When it opened in 2002, it was the longest land tunnel in the world, but was surpassed by the Swiss Lötschberg Tunnel in June 2007.

The tunnel is located 545 km from Tokyo Station on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line, halfway between Morioka and Hachinohe. Preliminary work on the construction of the tunnel began in 1988. Construction began in 1991. The tunnel began operating when the railway opened in 2002. Maximum depth is about 200 m.

The tunnel passes through the hilly terrain near Mount Kitakami and Mount Ou. The Mabuchi and Kitakami rivers are located near the Tokyo Tunnel Port.

The Iwate-Ichinohe is a single-tube, double-track, horseshoe-shaped structure. Cross-sectional dimensions: 9.8 m (width) x 7.7 m (height). The tunnel rises with a 0.5% gradient from Tokyo Port for approximately 22 km and then descends with a 1% gradient to Aomori Port. During its construction it was used new method Austrian tunneling (New Austrian Tunnelling method; NATM).

26.455 km

(Hakkōda Tunnel)

The railway tunnel, with a total length of 26,445 kilometers (16,432 miles), is located in northern Japan in the central Aomori Prefecture. It extends across the Hakkyoda Range and links the village of Tenmabayashi with the city of Aomori.

The Hakkoda Tunnel is part of the Tohoku Shinkansen Northern Line and is located between Shichino-Budawa and Shin Aomori stations. Preliminary work on the tunnel began in August 1998. On February 27, 2005, it surpassed the Iwate-Ichinoe Tunnel of the same Tohoku Shinkansen line to become the world's longest surface tunnel. After just two months, this title was taken away from him by the Swiss Lötschberg Tunnel, which lost this title thanks to the Gotthard Base Tunnel that opened in 2016. However, the Lötschberg Tunnel is mostly single-track, while the Gotthard Base Tunnel is double-track, which is why it remains the longest double-track single-pipe surface railway tunnel in the world.

The tunnel began operating in 2010.

4. New Guan Jiao Tunnel, China - 32.645 km

(New Guanjiao Tunnel)

This double-pipe railway tunnel is located on Line 2 of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in GuanJiao Mountains, Qinghai Province. The total length of the tunnel is 32,645 km (20,285 mi), making it the longest railway tunnel in China.

The China Railway First Survey and Design Institute was responsible for the design of the tunnel. The new Guan Jiao Tunnel was designed for two parallel single-track tunnels with travel speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour (99 mph). The total duration of construction was 5 years. The tunnel was built in difficult geological conditions and at high altitude, exceeding 3,300 meters (10,800 ft) above sea level. Work on its construction began in 2007 and was completed in April 2014. The tunnel was opened on December 28, 2014.

The northeastern portal of the tunnel (37.1834°N 99.1778°E) is located in Tianjun County, the southwestern portal (37.0094°N 98.8805°E) is located in Wulan County.

3. Eurotunnel / Channel Tunnel, UK-France - 50 km

(Channel Tunnel)

Connecting the UK to mainland Europe (portals to Folkestone, Kent and Pas de Calais in northern France), the tunnel has the world's longest underwater section at 37.9 kilometers (23.5 miles).

Despite the fact that this tunnel is a miracle of the modern era, the idea for its construction belongs to the French engineer Albert Mathieu, who in 1802 proposed to build a tunnel under the English Channel. His plans included creating an artificial island in the middle of the canal, where they could stop for Maintenance horse carriages.

“This is a megaproject. It fundamentally changed the geography of Europe and helped strengthen high-speed railway as a viable alternative to short-haul flights,” said Matt Sykes, tunnel expert and director of engineering company Arup.

Interesting fact : despite the fact that both the British and the French began work on creating the tunnel at the same time, the former did more work.

53,850 km

(Seikan Tunnel)

A unique feature of Japan's Seikan Tunnel is that its 23.3 kilometers (14.2 miles) section lies 140 meters (460 feet) below sea level. Until the Gotthard Base Tunnel was built, Seikan was the longest and deepest railway tunnel in the world.

It spans the Tsugaru Strait, connecting Aomori Prefecture on the island of Honshu with the island of Hokkaido. Work on the tunnel began in 1964 and was completed in 1988.

Interesting fact: In 1976, construction workers stumbled upon an area of ​​soft rock, causing water to rush into the tunnel at a rate of 80 tons per minute. The leak was neutralized only two months later.

57 km

(Gotthard Base Tunnel)

European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ex-president France Francois Hollande, in June 2016, attended the opening ceremony of a grandiose structure - the Gotthard Base Tunnel, during which colorful surreal scenes were demonstrated with the participation of costumed dancers, songs and fireworks.

Located at a depth of 2,300 meters (7,545 feet, almost 1.5 miles), the tunnel cuts travel time between Zurich, Switzerland and Milan by an hour.

The 57-kilometer tunnel runs between the towns of Erstfeld in the north and Bodio in the south. According to the Swiss Travel System, trains reaching speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph) complete the journey in 20 minutes.

Commercial operation of the tunnel began on December 11. On this day the first regular passenger train left Zurich at 06:09 local time and arrived in Lugano at 08:17.

The Gotthard Base Tunnel took the title of the longest railway tunnel in the world from the 53.9-kilometer northern Japanese Seikan Tunnel and pushed the 50.5-kilometer tunnel between Great Britain and France into third place.

Interesting fact: during the construction of the tunnel, 3,200 kilometers of copper cable were used, the length of which would be enough from Madrid to Moscow.

Illustration copyright AFP Image caption This photo was taken on October 15, 2010. Workers stand at a huge tunneling shield, with the help of which the tunnel was built

The world's longest and deepest railway tunnel, the Gotthard railway tunnel, opened today in Switzerland. It took almost 20 years and more than $12 billion to build.

Its permanent operation will begin in December.

Swiss authorities say the tunnel will revolutionize the transport of goods in Europe. Goods that are currently transported by millions of trucks each year will be transported by rail.

This technological marvel will provide faster and easier connections between southern and northern Europe. The tunnel will speed up the movement of goods and people and reduce pollution environment exhaust gases from cars.

Swiss authorities predict that 260 freight trains will be able to pass through the tunnel per day. 20 million passengers a year will be able to use the new highway. Travel time from Zurich to Milan will be reduced to 2 hours 50 minutes.

Conquering the Alps as part of self-identification

Until now, the longest railway tunnel in the world was considered the Japanese Seikan, 53.9 km long with an underwater fragment 23.3 km long.

The Gotthard Tunnel is also longer than the Channel Tunnel, which is 50.5 km long.

This is not only the longest tunnel in the world, it is also the deepest railway tunnel in existence: the maximum height of the mountains above the tunnel is 2300 meters. Without a powerful ventilation system, the temperature in it would reach +40 degrees.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande will be present along with Swiss officials at the tunnel's opening ceremony in Switzerland.

“This is part of the Swiss identity,” Peter Fuglisthaler, head of the Swiss Federal Department of Transport, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

“For us, conquering the Alps is the same as exploring the oceans for the Dutch,” he said.

Cost of the tunnel: $12 billion and 9 lives

The project, which cost more than $12 billion to build, was approved by the Swiss in a referendum in 1992.

During construction of the tunnel, engineers extracted 73 different types of rocks: some were as hard as granite, others as soft as sugar. Nine workers died during construction.

The Gotthard Tunnel, completed on time and on budget, will become a mainline railway linking Rotterdam in the Netherlands with Genoa, Italy. The tunnel, consisting of two parallel tunnels, runs from the municipality of Bodio in southern Switzerland to the municipality of Erstfeld in the center of the country.

From December, when permanent operation of the tunnel begins, the journey from Zurich to Milan will take two hours and forty minutes - an hour less than usual.

Money to finance the project was taken from budget revenues from taxes on fuel and value added, and another part of the funds was a government loan, which must be repaid within 10 years.

Representatives of the Swiss bank Credit Suisse said that among the economic benefits of the Gotthard Tunnel are simplified transportation of goods and an influx of tourists.

07/29/2019 at 19:05 · VeraSchegoleva · 300

Top 10 longest road and railway tunnels in the world

Tunnels, railway or road, are built to connect cities located on different banks of a reservoir, along different sides mountain range, etc..

In most cases, construction is fraught with enormous 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 railway tunnels in the world.

10. Laerdal tunnel in Norway (24,510 m)

Laerdal tunnel in Norway it is located in the west of the country and connects the municipalities of Laerdal and Aurland. Its construction began in 1995 and lasted 5 years: during this time, workers managed to build a road through a height of up to 1,600 meters.

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 from hours of driving could rest and relax a little in order to continue their journey with renewed vigor.

9. Iwate-Ichinose in Japan (25,810 m)

Tunnel Iwate-Ichinose located 545 km from 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 also makes it one of the deepest in the world. Initially, it was this tunnel that had the longest length (of the above-ground ones), until in 2007 it was bypassed by the Swiss city of Lötschberg, which we will talk about in more detail below.

8. Hakkoda in Japan (26,455 m)

It is located in the northern central prefecture of Aomori. It passes through the Hakkoda mountain range and connects the village of Tenmabayashi with the city of Aomori.

Tunnel Hakkoda is part of the northern extension of the Tohoku Shinkansen high-speed railway and is located between Shichinohe-Towada and Shin Aomori stations.

Construction of the tunnel began in 1998 and continued until 2005, when it was partially put into operation. All work was completely completed only in 2010.

7. Taihangshan in China (27,848 m)

Taihangshan is 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 China Passenger Railway to cross the Taihang Mountains. The left track is 27,839 m (17.298 miles) long and the right track is 27,848 m (17.304 miles).

After the opening of the Taihang Tunnel and the construction of the high-speed railway, the travel time from Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan was reduced many times: now you can get from one settlement to another 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)

The 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 Guddarama runs through it and is intended for the movement of railway trains. It consists of two pipes: the western one is 28,407 m long and the eastern pipe is 28,418 m long, making Guadarrama longest in Spain, except for line 12 of the Madrid metro.

5. New Guan Jiao in China (32,645 m)

New Guan Jiao is located on Line 2 of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the Guang Jiao Mountains of Qinghai Province. It is a two-channel railway tunnel with two roads. The total length is 32,645 km (20,285 mi), making it longest railway tunnel in China.

The project was created by the China Institute of Early Research and Design, whose staff tried to make it as suitable as possible for the parallel movement of two trains at speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour (99 mph).

It was assumed that the total duration of construction would be 5 years, but as a result it was finally put into operation after 7 years.

4. Lötschberg in Switzerland (34,577 m)

Line Lötschberg located in Switzerland: it connects the city of Spiez in the district of Bern with Brig in the district of Valais. The construction of the railway in these places began in the middle of the 19th century: already in 1859 the first railway from Bern to Munsingen and Thun was opened here.

Subsequently, the line was repeatedly enlarged, expanded and modernized, until in 1913 it acquired its finished form. Of course, modern trains do not run on the rails of 1913, but the bulk of the construction work was carried out more than a century ago, which makes the Lötschberg Tunnel the oldest in our selection.

This place amazes not only with its length, but also with its beauty: the Bichtal bridge, the Ligelkin and Kander viaducts, the majestic Bernese Alps. If you are driving this road for the first time, then sleeping is categorically not recommended: you will not see such splendor outside your window anywhere else.

3. Eurotunnel in France and Great Britain (50,450 m)

The railway tunnel links Folkestone and Kent in England with Coquelier and Pas-de-Calais in France near Calais in northern France. It is the only fixed link between the UK islands and mainland Europe.

At its lowest point, the tunnel passes 75 m below the seabed and 115 m below sea level. Limiting the speed of trains through Eurotunnel is 160 kilometers per hour. After it opened in 1994, it became possible to get to Paris from London in just 2 hours 15 minutes, although trains in the tunnel itself take no more than 35 minutes.

Interesting fact: In 1802, the French mining engineer Albert Mathieu-Favier put forward a proposal to build a tunnel under the English Channel with lighting from oil lamps for the movement of horse-drawn carts, and also wanted to build an artificial one in the middle of the channel for changing horses. Mathieu-Favier's design included a two-level structure with an upper tunnel used for transport and a lower one for underground watercourses. The project was never implemented, but Mathieu-Favier’s work was subsequently 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: it 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 put into operation only in 1988.

1. Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland (57,091 m)

The European railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland, opened on June 1, 2016, broke the length record, which for a long time held by Seikan.

It is part of the New Rail Link across the Alps (NRLA) project, which also includes the Ceneri base tunnel to the south (scheduled to open at the end of 2020) and the aforementioned Lötschberg.

Tunnels have always been considered irreplaceable structures necessary for safe passage or passage underground. But if earlier such architectural masterpieces helped people quietly penetrate enemy territory, today their construction is connected with other goals. Moreover, they differ from each other in structure, location and length. We decided to tell you today what the longest tunnels in the world are.

The longest Japanese tunnel

The longest railway tunnel to date is located in the Land of the Rising Sun. It is called Seikan, which means “Majestic Spectacle” in Japanese. The tunnel is quite impressive in size and even has a part hidden under water. Thus, its total length is 53.85 km, and the underwater fragment corresponds to a length of 23.3 km. That is why, in addition to the title of one of the largest land structures, Seikan also has another title - the longest underwater tunnel in the world.

The structure itself, which took at least 40 years to build, was erected in 1988. It contains two stations. However, despite the power of the building, Seikan is currently not used as often as before. According to analysts, this is due to an increase in railway fares.

Seikan is a tunnel whose depth is 240 m. This marvelous creation of man is located under the famous. According to the designers, the tunnel unites Hokkaido.

Few people know that the original impetus that led to the creation of this giant was a typhoon, as a result of which 5 passenger ferries were wrecked. As a result of this disaster, more than 1,150 tourists, including crew members, died on board just one of them.

The longest and most land connection in the world

The longest tunnels in the world can be divided into the following types:

• aboveground;
• underground;
• automobile, or road;
• railway;
• underwater.

Lamberg, once built in Switzerland, is considered one of the longest above-ground tunnels. Its length is 34 km. Trains can easily travel along it, sometimes reaching speeds of 200 km/h. It is noteworthy that this structure helps Swiss travelers arrive in one of the most popular resort areas of the country - Valle - in a couple of hours. According to experienced tourists, this is where numerous thermal springs are located.

It is interesting that, in addition to its main task, Lamberg, like the other longest tunnels in the world, also performs a number of others. In particular, near the building itself there are warm ones that help to heat Tropenhaus Frutigen - a nearby greenhouse and tropical crops growing on its territory.

One of the largest automobile subways

The longest road tunnel in the world is Lerdal. This 24.5 km long structure is a kind of connecting bridge between the municipalities of Airland and Laerdal, located in western Norway. Moreover, the Lärdal tunnel is considered a continuation of the famous E16 highway, which is located between Bergen and Oslo.

Construction of the famous tunnel began in mid-1995, and it ended closer to 2000. From that moment on, the structure was recognized as one of the longest automobile subways, leaving behind the famous Gotthard Tunnel by as much as 8 km.

Interestingly, the construction passes through mountains whose height is above 1600 m. Thanks to the precise calculations of the architects, experts managed to reduce the load on drivers moving through the tunnel. And this was achieved by creating three additional grottoes, equidistant from each other. At the same time, these artificial caves divide the free space under the building into four long sections. This is such an unusual and longest tunnel in the world.

Third longest railway tunnel

The Eurotunnel is considered the third longest among other subways passing through railway tracks. This structure runs under the English Channel and unites Great Britain with part of continental Europe. With its help, anyone can travel from Paris to London in just a couple of hours. Inside an underground pipe train On average it stays for 20-35 minutes.

The grand opening of the Eurotunnel took place in May 1994. Despite the fact that a lot of money was spent on the construction of this underground corridor, the world community recognized it as a miraculous masterpiece. Therefore, the structure was classified as one of the modern wonders of the world. According to preliminary estimates, this longest tunnel in the world will become self-sustaining only after 1000 years.

Longest tunnel in the Alps

Another incredible underground corridor that has not lost its position for over half a century is the Simplon Tunnel. It is he who is considered the most successful link between the city of Domodossola (Italy) and Brig (Switzerland). In addition, the building itself has a convenient geographical position, as it crosses the famous Orient Express route and affects one of the lines in the Paris-Istanbul direction.

Incredibly, the Simplon Tunnel has its own history. These walls remember a lot, for example, the fact that during the Second World War the entrance and exit from it were mined. However, an unauthorized explosion was avoided thanks to the help of local partisans. Currently, the subway consists of two portals 19803 and 19823 m long. Now you know where the longest tunnel in the world is.

Unfinished “monster” in the Alps

There is also an unfinished one in the Alps, which is called a real monster of modern architectural buildings. This titanium, whose length is about 57 km, is comfortably located in friendly Switzerland. According to the project developers themselves, the main goal of the tunnel is the safe passage of goods and passengers through the Alps. In addition, it can be used to reduce the three-hour journey from Zurich to Milan to two hours and fifty minutes.

And although the Gotthard Tunnel is not yet finished, it is already breaking records for the amount of money spent. As reported in one foreign publication, to date the construction of the underground corridor has cost its owners $10.3 billion. The opening of one of the longest railway tunnels is planned for 2017.

The longest tunnels in the world: undersea connection between Japan and South Korea

The South Korean government, together with the Japanese, has developed a plan to build a tunnel 182 km long. This decision was made in order to increase trade turnover and speed up transport connections between the two countries. This project, according to experts, will be grandiose. And although its construction is just beginning, developers, engineers and architects have already had to face a lot of problems. In particular, it is not yet clear how the rescue system will work if a random accident suddenly occurs.

The longest and most expensive tunnel in the world

The longest road tunnel, where you can see eight lanes of the highway at once, is considered the Great Boston Tunnel. However, its amazing structure and design undoubtedly pale in comparison to the amount that the customers of this building had to pay.

According to preliminary data, the total budget spent on the construction of the tunnel exceeded $14.6 billion. But the contractors were unable to meet this amount, so additional daily costs amounted to about $3 million. More than 150 modern cranes worked during the construction of the Great Boston Tunnel. Moreover, more than 5,000 employees participated in the process itself.

The longest tunnel in all of Spain

Spain also boasts Guadarama, a long land tunnel that connects Valladolid with Madrid. Its length is only 28.37 km. The opening of this building took place in 2007. Later they started talking about Guadarama as the largest architectural work in Spain.

Large underground tunnel in Japan

Japan is famous for its underground and above-ground buildings, including the large Hakkoda railway tunnel. Its total length is about 26.5 km. Many years have passed since the opening of this building until now. But it continues to be one of the most unique spacious passages, along which two trains can pass at once.