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CHOICE OF TUNNELS vs. BRIDGES

For water crossings, a tunnel is generally more costly to construct than a bridge. Navigational considerations may limit the use of high bridges or drawbridge spans intersecting with shipping channels, necessitating a tunnel.

Bridges usually require a larger footprint on each shore than tunnels. In areas with expensive real estate, such as Manhattan and urban Hong Kong, this is a strong factor in tunnels' favor. Boston's Big Dig project replaced elevated roadways with a tunnel system to increase traffic capacity, hide traffic, reclaim land, redecorate, and reunite the city with the waterfront.

The 1934 Queensway Road Tunnel under the River Mersey at Liverpool, was chosen over a massively high bridge for defence reasons. It was feared aircraft could destroy a bridge in times of war. Maintenance costs of a massive bridge to allow the world's largest ships navigate under was considered higher than a tunnel. Similar conclusions were met for the 1971 Kingsway Tunnel under the River Mersey.

Examples of water-crossing tunnels built instead of bridges include the Holland Tunnel and Lincoln Tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan in New York City, and the Elizabeth River tunnels between Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, the 1934 River Mersey road Queensway Tunnel and the Westerschelde tunnel, Zeeland, Netherlands.

Other reasons for choosing a tunnel instead of a bridge include avoiding difficulties with tides, weather and shipping during construction (as in the 51.5-kilometre or 32.0 mi Channel Tunnel), aesthetic reasons (preserving the above-ground view, landscape, and scenery), and also for weight capacity reasons (it may be more feasible to build a tunnel than a sufficiently strong bridge).

Some water crossings are a mixture of bridges and tunnels, such as the Denmark to Sweden link and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in the eastern United States.

There are particular hazards with tunnels, especially from vehicle fires when combustion gases can asphyxiate users, as happened at the Gotthard Road Tunnel in Switzerland in 2001. One of the worst railway disasters ever, the Balvano train disaster, was caused by a train stalling in the Armi tunnel in Italy in 1944, killing 426 passengers.

 

HISTORY OF DAMs

The word ‘dam’ can be traced back to Middle English, and before that, from Middle Dutch, as seen in the names of many old cities.

Most early dam building took place in Mesopotamia and the Middle East. Dams were used to control the water level. Mesopotamia's weather affected the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and could be quite unpredictable.

The earliest known dam is situated in Jawa, Jordan, 100 km northeast of the capital Amman. This gravity dam featured a 9 m high and 1 m wide stone wall, supported by a 50 m wide earth rampart (= a high wide wall of stone with a path on top, built around a castle, town, etc.). The structure is dated to 3000 BC. The Ancient Egyptian Sadd Al-Kafara at Wadi Al-Garawi, located about 25 kilometers south of Cairo, was 102 m long at its base and 87 m wide. The structure was built around 2800 or 2600 B.C. as a dam for flood control, but was destroyed by heavy rain during construction or shortly afterwards.

Roman dam construction was characterized by "the Romans' ability to plan and organize engineering construction on a grand scale". Roman planners introduced a new concept of large reservoir dams which could secure a permanent water supply for urban settlements also over the dry season. Their pioneering use of water-proof hydraulic mortar and particularly Roman concrete allowed for much larger dam structures than previously built, such as the Lake Homs Dam, possibly the largest water barrier to date, and the Harbaqa Dam, both in Roman Syria. The highest Roman dam was the Subiaco Dam near Rome; its record height of 50 m remained unsurpassed until its accidental destruction in 1305.

Roman engineers made routine use of ancient standard designs like embankment dams and masonry gravity dams. Apart from that, they displayed a high degree of inventiveness, introducing most of the other basic dam designs which had been unknown until then. These include arch-gravity dams, arch dams, buttress dams and multiple arch buttress dams, all of which were known and employed by the 2nd century AD (see List of Roman dams). Roman workforces also were the first to built dam bridges, such as the Bridge of Valerian in Iran.

Eflatun Pınar is a Hittite dam and spring temple near Konya, Turkey. It's thought to the time of the Hittite empire between the 15th and 13 century BC.

The Kallanai is a massive dam of unhewn stone, over 300 meters long, 4.5 meters high and 20 meters (60 ft) wide, across the main stream of the Kaveri river in India. The basic structure dates to the 2nd century AD. The purpose of the dam was to divert the waters of the Kaveri across the fertile Delta region for irrigation via canals.

Du Jiang Yan is the oldest surviving irrigation system in China that included a dam that directed waterflow. It was finished in 251 B.C. A large earthen dam, made by the Prime Minister of Chu (state), Sunshu Ao, flooded a valley in modern-day northern Anhui province that created an enormous irrigation reservoir (62 miles in circumference), a reservoir that is still present today.

In Iran, bridge dams such as the Band-e Kaisar were used to provide hydropower through water wheels, which often powered water-raising mechanisms. One of the first was the Roman-built dam bridge in Dezful, which could raise 50 cubits of water for the water supply to all houses in the town. Also diversion dams were known. Milling dams were introduced which the Muslim engineers called the Pul-i-Bulaiti. The first was built at Shustar on the River Karun, Iran, and many of these were later built in other parts of the Islamic world. Water was conducted from the back of the dam through a large pipe to drive a water wheel and watermill. In the 10th century, Al-Muqaddasi described several dams in Persia. He reported that one in Ahwaz was more than 3,000 feet long, and that and it had many water-wheels raising the water into aqueducts through which it flowed into reservoirs of the city. Another one, the Band-i-Amir dam, provided irrigation for 300 villages.

In the Netherlands, a low-lying country, dams were often applied to block rivers in order to regulate the water level and to prevent the sea from entering the marsh lands. Such dams often marked the beginning of a town or city because it was easy to cross the river at such a place, and often gave rise to the respective place's names in Dutch. For instance the Dutch capital Amsterdam (old name Amstelredam) started with a dam through the river Amstel in the late 12th century, and Rotterdam started with a dam through the river Rotte, a minor tributary of the Nieuwe Maas. The central square of Amsterdam, covering the original place of the 800 year old dam, still carries the name Dam Square or simply the Dam.

 

HISTORY OF TUNNELS

 

The oldest used rail tunnel in the world was built in 1836. Only a short section of it remains now in Liverpool.

The World's oldest underwater tunnel is said to be the Terelek kaya tüneli under Kızıl River, a little south of the towns of Boyabat and Duragan in Turkey. It was built more than 2000 years ago (possibly 5000) and possibly had a defensive purpose.

The examples of other historical tunnels are as follows:

• The ‘qanat’ or ‘kareez’ of Persia is a water management system used to provide a reliable supply of water to human settlements or for irrigation in hot, arid and semi-arid climates. The oldest and largest known system is in the Iranian city of Gonabad, which after 2700 years, still provides drinking and agricultural water to nearly 40,000 people. Its depth is more than 360 m (1,180 ft), and its length is 45 km (28 mi).
• The Eupalinian aqueduct on the island of Samos (North Aegean, Greece). Built in 520 BC by the ancient Greek engineer Eupalinos of Megara. Eupalinos organised the work so that the tunnel construction began from both sides of mount Kastro. The two teams advanced simultaneously (= at one and the same time) and met in the middle with excellent accuracy, something that was extremely difficult in that time. The aqueduct was of defensive importance, since it ran underground, and it was not easily found by an enemy who could otherwise cut off the water supply to Pythagoreion, the ancient capital of Samos. The tunnel's existence was recorded by Herodotus (as was the mole and harbour, and the third wonder of the island, the great temple to Hera, thought by many to be the largest in the Greek world). The precise location of the tunnel was only re-established in the 19th century by German archaeologists. The tunnel is 1,030 m long (3,380 ft) and visitors can still enter it.
• Sapperton Canal Tunnel on the Thames and Severn Canal in England was dug through hills, and was opened in 1789. It was 3.5 km (2.2 mi) long and allowed boat transport of coal and other goods. Above it runs the Sapperton Long Tunnel which carries the "Golden Valley" railway line between Swindon and Gloucester.
• The 1796 Stoddart Tunnel in Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire is reputed to be the oldest rail tunnel in the world. Rail wagons were horse-drawn at that time.
• The tunnel was created for the first true steam locomotive, from Penydarren to Abercynon. The Penydarren locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick. The locomotive made the historic journey from Penydarren to Abercynon in 1804. Part of this tunnel can still be seen at Pentrebach, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. This is the oldest railway tunnel in the world, for self-propelled steam engines on rails.
• The Montgomery Bell Tunnel in Tennessee was a 290-foot (88-metre) long, high water diversion tunnel, 15-×-8 ft high (4.6-×-2.4 m), to power a water wheel. It was built by slave labour in 1819, being the first full-scale tunnel in North America.
• Crown Street Station, Liverpool, 1829. It was built by George Stephenson. It was a single track tunnel 291 yd long (266 m). It was bored from Edge Hill to Crown Street to serve the world's first passenger railway station. The station was abandoned in 1836 being too far from Liverpool city centre, with the area converted for freight use. Closed down in 1972, the tunnel is disused. However it is the oldest rail tunnel running under streets in the world.
• The 1.26 mile (2.03 km) 1829 Wapping Tunnel in Liverpool, England, was the first rail tunnel bored under a metropolis. Currently it has been disused since 1972. Having two tracks, the tunnel runs from Edge Hill in the east of the city to the south end. The tunnel is still in excellent condition and is being considered for reuse by Merseyrail rapid transit rail system, with maybe an underground station cut into the tunnel. The river portal is opposite the new Liverpool Arena being ideal for a serving station. If reused, it will be the oldest used underground rail tunnel in the world and oldest part of any underground metro system.
• Box Tunnel in England, opened in 1841, was the longest railway tunnel in the world at the time of construction. It was dug and has a length of 2.9 km (1.8 mi).
• The 0.75 mile long, constructed in 1842 Shildon tunnel near Darlington, England, is the oldest sizable tunnel in the world still in use under a settlement.
• The Thames Tunnel, built by Marc Isambard Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened in 1843, was the first underwater tunnel. Originally used as a foot-tunnel, it was a part of the East London Line of the London Underground until 2007, being the oldest section of the system. From 2010 the tunnel becomes a part of the London Overground system.
• The oldest underground sections of the London Underground were built using the cut-and-cover method in the 1860s. The Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City, Circle and District lines were the first to prove the success of a metro or subway system. Dating from 1863, Baker Street station is the oldest underground station in the world.
• The 1882 Col de Tende Road Tunnel, at 3182 metres long, was one of the first long road tunnels under a pass, running between France and Italy.
• The rail Severn Tunnel was opened in late 1886, at 4 miles 624 yd (7,008 m) long, although only 2¼ miles (3.62 km) of the tunnel is actually under the river. The tunnel replaced the Mersey Railway tunnel's longest under water record, which it held for less than a year.
• St. Clair Tunnel, also opened later in 1890, linked the elements of the Greathead tunnels on a larger scale.
• The 1927 Holland Tunnel was the first underwater tunnel designed for automobiles. This fact required a novel ventilation system.

The List of tunnels by length:

• The Delaware Aqueduct in New York USA is the longest tunnel, of any type, in the world at 137 km (85 mi). It is drilled through solid rock.
• The Seikan Tunnel in Japan is the longest rail tunnel in the world at 53.9 km (33.5 mi), of which 23.3 km (14.5 mi) is under the sea.
• The Channel Tunnel between France and the United Kingdom under the English Channel is the second-longest, with a total length of 50 km (31 mi), of which 39 km (24 mi) is under the sea.
• The Lötschberg Base Tunnel opened in June 2007 in Switzerland is the longest land rail tunnel, with a total of 34.5 km (21.4 mi).
• The Lærdal Tunnel in Norway from Lærdal to Aurland is the world's longest road tunnel, intended for cars and similar vehicles, at 24.5 km (15.2 mi).
• The Zhongnanshan Tunnel in People's Republic of China opened in January 2007 is the world's second longest highway tunnel and the longest road tunnel in Asia, at 18 km (11 mi).

The longest canal tunnel is the Standedge Tunnel in the United Kingdom, over 5 km (3.1 mi) long.