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Norway Plans to Build the World's First Ship Tunnel (newatlas.com)
Norway is planning to build the world's first ship tunnel through the country's Stad peninsula, which is home to harsh weather conditions that often delay shipments and cause dangerous conditions for ship crews. The proposed tunnel would enable ships to travel through the peninsula in safety. New Atlas recently interviewed Stad Ship Tunnel Project Manager Terje Andreassen about the project: NA: We'd usually expect a canal to be built for this kind of purpose, so why a tunnel? Because in this case we are crossing a hill which is more than 300 meters (984 ft) high. The only alternative is a tunnel. From a maritime point of view this is still a canal, but with a "roof." NA: How would you go about making such a large tunnel -- would you use a boring machine, for example, or explosives? First we will drill horizontally and use explosives to take out the roof part of the tunnel. Then all bolts and anchors to secure the roof rock before applying shotcrete. The rest of the tunnel will be done in the same way as in open mining. Vertical drilling and blasting with explosives down to the level of 12 m (42 ft) below the sea level. NA: How much rock will be removed, and how will you go about removing it? There will be 3 billion cubic meters (over 105 billion cubic ft) of solid rock removed. All transportation from the tunnel area will be done by large barges. NA: What, if any, are the unique challenges to building a ship tunnel when compared with a road tunnel? The challenge is the height of this tunnel. There is 50 m (164 ft) from bottom to the roof, so all secure works and shotcrete must be done in several levels. The tunnel will be made dry down to the bottom. We solve this by leaving some rock unblasted in each end of the tunnel to prevent water flowing in.
Assuming it does indeed go ahead -- and with the Norwegian government having already set aside the money, this seems relatively likely -- the Stad Ship Tunnel will reach a length of 1.7 km (1.05 miles), and measure 37 m (121 ft) tall and 26.5 m (87 ft) wide. It's expected to cost NOK 2.3 billion (over US$272 million) to build and won't actually speed up travel times, but instead focuses on making the journey safer. Top-tier architecture and design firm Snohetta has designed the entrances, and the company's early plans include sculpted tunnel openings and adding LED lighting on the tunnel ceiling.
Assuming it does indeed go ahead -- and with the Norwegian government having already set aside the money, this seems relatively likely -- the Stad Ship Tunnel will reach a length of 1.7 km (1.05 miles), and measure 37 m (121 ft) tall and 26.5 m (87 ft) wide. It's expected to cost NOK 2.3 billion (over US$272 million) to build and won't actually speed up travel times, but instead focuses on making the journey safer. Top-tier architecture and design firm Snohetta has designed the entrances, and the company's early plans include sculpted tunnel openings and adding LED lighting on the tunnel ceiling.
300 meters is 984 feet.
Set it to Haste 2, and get a large chest of unbreakable 3, efficiency V diamond pickaxes!
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Sure, having boats go through the tunnel is badass as long as it's not to the tune of "it's a small world after all", but things get even more interesting when we consider that tunnels of that scale will be exactly what we need to deploy the giant robots when the alien monsters come by.
300 meters != 384 feet
... just the first BIG ship tunnel as stated in TFA. For the first ship tunnel in Europe, they are a few centuries late: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
considering the scale of this project I am surprised the cost is only US$272 million, has technology to do this advanced that far or are the Norwegians just very efficient. hell a lot of large buildings cost considerable more than this
I remember my military service. We had a huge tunnel complex for boats... Maybe they mean civilian tunnel?
Because of all the fjords any land road needs lots of tunnels, bridges and taking long detours inland, so travel by sea makes a lot of sense. Stad has been a major chokepoint because it's very exposed and has an underwater topology that creates huge waves, blocking all north-south traffic in bad weather. The value of reliability is hard to properly get into an economic model, but you probably wouldn't use a way to get to work that only got you there 95% of the time. This would allow you to rely on sea traffic being far more punctual than before all year long.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Why not use autonomous ships on the dangerous passage instead? Autonomous ships are expected in the next few years, even before autonomous cars. Granted, this would not solve the problem of transporting passengers safely, but it would mean much less concern for cargo shipments.
That being said, a ship tunnel sounds like a cool idea.
For exemple the Rove Tunnel in France : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rove_Tunnel
2.3 billions m3 build in 1927
As Kjella writes in another post, this particular area is the single worst weather hurdle along the entire Norwegian coast, and we do have a lot of coastline:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I.e. significantly longer than the US even when you include Alaska, this meant that sea travel was by far the most important transportation network here at least since the vikings.
It is somewhat telling that the coastal route around the country (where the Hurtigruten goes between Bergen and Kirkenes, taking 11 days for the round trip) is considered "highway 1", our road system numbering therefore starts with highway 2.
The english wikipedia article about this project is somewhat short but still pretty good, mentioning that the first proposal came in 1874.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Terje
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
They build da tunnel instead of da bridge, so da trolls have no place to live!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnqH29dgPao
Had a lot to do with how the Boeing X-32 looked. It didn't have the nickname "Monica" for nothing.
First of what ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q3uHv_DRbA
300 meters is not 384 ft. It's about 984 ft.
Why not just blast the 'roof' portion as well? why risk cave-in, or added cost for regular 'roof' maintenance?
The C&O Canal originally surveyed by George Washington has a tunnel. You can walk the towpath through one that is over 100 years old any day of the week.
"The Paw Paw Tunnel is a 3,118-foot (950 m) long canal tunnel on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O) in Allegany County, Maryland. Located near Paw Paw, West Virginia, it was built to bypass the Paw Paw Bends, a 6-mile (9.7 km) stretch of the Potomac River containing five horseshoe-shaped bends."
What's the clearance assuming our sea levels rise over the next few years? Can they easily raise the roof once they've fortified it?
Not a single Jules Verne reference?!?!?!?
I am not left-handed, either!
World's first ship tunnel. But what world? The modern world? I ask because some 25 kilometer from where I live there is a ship tunnel that was build in the middle ages. It connected two larger rivers and made east - west travel possible, opening the energy, wood and iron markets of the east for the western coastal cities who traded with the rest of the known world. It is still a tourist attraction after 1,200 years. And this wasn't the only one that was build back then in the 'dark ages', but it is the oldest surviving 'ship tunnel'.
There are still plenty of undiscovered man made tunnels in the area. In the 70's an underground pagan temple was uncovered. This temple was used well into Christian times to escape from the harsh persecution of radical Christians when caught with practicing polytheism. To reach the temple, one had to travel 6 kilometers through an underground maze. Only people who knew the way would reach the temple.
They should lock the ships up one side of the mountain and then let them slide down the other. Weeeeeeeeeee
I hope they plan a good light show inside the tunnel. And audio, it must have audio:
There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going.
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing.
Is it raining?
Is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a blowing?
Not a speck of light is showing
so the danger must be growing.
Are the fires of hell a glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?
Yes! The danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing. And they're certainly not showing
any signs that they are slowing!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Brunel did this in 1838, though smaller. How is this the world's first?
Well, in France, they built one in 1775, with a length of 3333 Meters and it's still used to this very day.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Slartibartfast?
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
So the boston big dig is 3.5miles so about 3 times the length. Even in the beginning it was estimated to be 2.8billion (in 1982 dollars). So here we are in 2017 with a project 1/3 the size estimated to cost 1/10 the price. And the big dig went on to cost 14 billion. Its why I laugh when I hear local leaders saying they will put I-35 in a tunnel for 2 bil. Or why I laugh and continue to laugh at the clusterF they are doing on MOPAC. Its going to be 2 years late at least and some crazy amount over budget. Or the flood tunnel they put in to beautify downtown that went over budget by 3X and is still not complete.
Oh, drilling a tunnel between two huge bodies of water?
And what will happen if the water level is different on both sides?
Will it turn into a fucking water slide with a huge sucking sound?
Er ner, I herv brerken the terp of the merst erf!
Yer sherd herv werterd fer the terd ter ger ert.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I really hope they don't pass up the opportunity to make it look like an ancient artifact of Norse mythology; like straight up Gates of Argonath shit.
Or at least make it totally metal, like it was designed by Dethklok.
Come on Norway, gotta represent.
Unique or large scale engineering projects like this make great documentary subjects. Hopefully they have a film crew with them at many times throughout construction.
The proper use of a tunnel allowing boat passage is in one of those amusement park rides where you would take your date.
Some people might say Norway is boring.
1e9 m3 would be snuggly enough to fill the baltic sea between Finland and Estonia.
Expect tweet from Elon Musk: Our Boring company can make that tunnel in 100 days or we'll do it for free!
??? No one has mentioned the obvious? Should the estimates of sea level increases be accurate, which I believe them to be, in a few years, the only way for that tunnel to still be of use is if they gouge out much of its roof.