World class tunnelling: P. Hartley, Tunnels & Tunnelling, 27(12), 1995, pp 36–44

Abstract

This feature reviews major tunnelling schemes in progress, or about to start, some of them in less developed countries. Severe technical problems have occured in several of these projects, but many of them have now been resolved, although this has led to design changes, some of which have been expensive and/or time consuming. The European projects are: (1) the road tunnel under the River Lee at Cork, Ireland, including a 600m four-lane immersed tube tunnel; (2) the 3.5km long Oresund immersed tube tunnel at the West end of the link between Denmark and Sweden; (3) the Cadiz water supply tunnel; (4) tunnels in the Rome, Milan, and Munich metros; (5) two rail tunnels in Austria; and (6) the Jubilee Line Extension and Heathrow Express tunnels in and near London. Projects in the Americas are: (1) construction of the Los Angeles Metro, which has had severe problems including several collapses; (2) a 90km long water tunnel for New York City; (3) other US tunnels; and (4) urban metro tunnelling in several Latin American cities. Pacific Rim projects include: (1) tunnelling for metros in four South Korean cities; (2) the Taipei underground railway, Taiwan; (3) several tunnels in Hong Kong; (4) the Three Gorges hydro tunnel and Shanghai Metro tunnelling in China; and (5) the Blue Mountains Sewage Transfer Scheme in Australia.