This 57-km tunnel under the Swiss Alps has nearly broken through after 11-years of work. This tunnel will create a ‘flat’ rail path through the Alps and become the world’s longest rail tunnel. [Source: World Tunnelling. Image: Alp Transit]
The Devil’s Slide Tunnels that bypass a landslide prone stretch of California coast will not open until late 2012, a full year later than anticipated according to Caltrans. The tunnels broke through back in October, […]
Thanks to approximately $100 million from President Bush’s proposed 2009 budget, the $1.8 billion project creating a light-rail line from downtown Seattle to the University of Washington is likely to break ground some time this year. The project will involve twin bored tunnels on the order of 3 miles in length. It is scheduled to open for use in 2016.
There is another notable tunnel project associated with the Seattle Light Rail, known as the Beacon Hill tunnel which I have blogged about before.
The Claremont tunnel beneath the Berkeley Hills on the east side of Oakland is a water supply tunnel that serves over 800,000 customers in Richmond, Oakland, San Leandro and neighboring communities. One of the unique things about the tunnel is that it crosses the active Hayward Fault. Most of the time when you talk about designing for earthquakes you’re talking about designing to withstand the seismic forces. In this case, the designers needed the water transmission tunnel to withstand up to 7.5-ft of offset due to fault slip and still maintain a minimum level of service. (Photo credit: Sue Bednarz, Jacobs Associates, Inc. by way of Civil Engineering Magazine)
This post describes the relatively recent Claremont Tunnel Seismic Upgrade Project as reported in Civil Engineering Magazine (May 2008, v. 78, no. 5, pp 58-63, 96-97).
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To speed the project, intermediate shafts were sunk to allow for simultaneous tunnelling on several faces, these points (Erstfeld, Amsteg, Sedrun, Bodio and Faido) to become integrated in the finished structure for servicing and emergency access.