10 Interesting Facts about The Channel Tunnel

Those Facts about The Channel Tunnel which probably give your information about this. Channel Tunnel in French Le tunnel sous la Manche is a rail tunnel lingking Folkestone, kent in United Kingdom. The tunnel has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world. The tunnel carries high-speed Eurostar passenger trains, the Eurotunnel Shuttle for automobiles and other road vehicles. The tunnel connects end-to-end with the LGV Nord and High Speed 1 high-speed railway lines. Here, the complete facts will be shown.

Facts about The Channel Tunnel 1 : Construction

Eleven tunnel boring machines or TBMs cut through chalk marl to construct two rail tunnel and a service tunnel. The vehicle shuttle terminals are at Cheriton (part of Folkestone) and Coquelles, and are connected to the English M20 and French A16 motorways respectively.

Facts about The Channel Tunnel 2 : Completion

On 30 October 1990, a two-inch (50 mm) diameter pilot hole allowed the service tunnel to break through without ceremony. Then, on 1 December 1990, Englishman Graham Fagg and Frenchman Phillippe Cozette broke through the service tunnel with the media watching. Eurotunnel completed the tunnel on time, and it was officially opened.

Facts about The Channel Tunnel 3 : Engineering

The service tunnel was used as a pilot tunnel, boring ahead of the main tunnels to determine the conditions. English access was provided at Shakespeare Cliff, French access from a shaft at Sangatte. The French side used five tunnel boring machines (TBMs), the English side six. The service uses Service Tunnel Transport System (STTS) and Light Service Tunnel Vehicles (LADOGS). Fire safety was a critical design issue.

Facts about The Channel Tunnel 4 : Geology

The geology of this site generally consists of northeasterly dipping Cretaceous strata, part of the northern limb of the Wealden-Boulonnais dome. The English terminal had to be located in the Castle Hill landship, which consist displaced and tipping blocks of lower chalk, glauconitic marl and gault debris. The area was stabilized by buttressing and inserting drainage adits.

Facts about The Channel Tunnel 5 : Tunneling

Tunneling was a major engineering challenge, with the only precedent being the underse Seikan Tunnel in Japan. Underwater tunnel has serious risk when the major water inflow due to the pressure from the sea above. The tunnel also had the challenge of time: being privately funded.

Facts about The Channel Tunnel 6 : Communication System

The communication system here uses three system. It uses concession radio (CR) for mobile vehicles and personnel within Eurotunnel’s Concession (terminals, tunnels, coastal shafts); track-to-train radio (TTR) for secure speech; Shuttle internal radio (SIR) is used for communication between crew and the passengers.

Facts about The Channel Tunnel 7 : Power Supply

The traditional railway south of London uses a 750 V DC third rail to deliver electricity, but since the opening of High Speed 1 there is no longer any need for tunnel trains to use the third rail system.

Facts about The Channel Tunnel 8 : Signalling

A cab signaling system gives information to the train drivers on a display. There is a train a train protection system that stops the train if the speed exceeds that indicates on the in-cab display. The maximum speed is 160 km/h.

Facts about The Channel Tunnel 9 : Security

There are security checks before boarding as well. For the shuttle road vehicle trains there are juxtaposed passport controls before boarding the trains. The reason for juxtaposed controls is to prevent illegal immigration.

Facts about The Channel Tunnel 10 : Terminals

The terminals are designed to transfer vehicles from the motorway onto trains at a rate of 700 cars and 113 heavy vehicles per hour. The UK site uses the M20 motorway for access. The terminals are organized with the frontier controls juxtaposed with the entry.