All posts tagged: Tunnel

Thames crossing delayed after planning it cost more than world’s longest road tunnel | Politics News

Thames crossing delayed after planning it cost more than world’s longest road tunnel | Politics News

Published by Sam

The fate of Britain’s biggest road scheme hangs in the balance after ministers delayed giving it the go ahead – despite over £800m being spent on it to date. The government said it needed more time to consider whether to grant a development order for The Lower Thames Crossing (LTC), including reviewing its cost. The 14 mile project was first proposed in 2009, and would connect Kent and Essex through a road and tunnel beneath the River Thames to reduce congestion. Politics Live: Sunak makes ‘fire and rehire’ jibe over Sue Gray’s exit Campaigners have reacted angrily to the news, saying more money has already been spent on seeking permission for it than what it cost to actually build the world’s longest road tunnel in Norway. National Highways revealed in a Freedom of Information (FoI) request earlier this year that £295m has been spent on the application process for the LTC. Overall spending, including technical surveys and land purchasing costs, has surpassed £800m – all before a spade has hit the ground. As pointed out …

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Still Doesn’t Even Work in a Single Lane Tunnel

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Still Doesn’t Even Work in a Single Lane Tunnel

Published by José

The company is hoping to start “using a driver assistance tool by the end of this year.” Three Steps Back Forget open roads. Tesla still hasn’t figured out how to get its vehicles to autonomously drive through Elon Musk’s tunneling venture The Boring Company’s single-lane tunnel. That’s despite the mercurial CEO making vast promises about his EV maker’s progress on solving what it calls “Full Self-Driving.” Musk made a big deal out of unveiling a “robotaxi” later this year, but whether such a vehicle could even ferry visitors from one part of the Las Vegas Convention Center to the other remains to be seen. As the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports, the tunneling venture is only starting to consider helping out the underground fleet’s human drivers by assisting — not replacing — them. There’s still no timeline for when full autonomy will be implemented — which isn’t exactly confidence-inducing, considering all the cars have to do is drive down an unoccupied, single-lane tunnel. “Hopefully this will get started just lightly, using a driver assistance tool by …

Paddle under the Pennines: longest and deepest UK canal tunnel opens for canoe trips | North of England

Paddle under the Pennines: longest and deepest UK canal tunnel opens for canoe trips | North of England

Published by skeptic

“You’re in a canoe, not a boat, so you are very exposed,” said Gordon McMinn as he prepared to paddle into the UK’s longest, highest and deepest canal tunnel. “You’re vulnerable, you’re under your own steam, you are up and close to history … it is quite an experience.” McMinn, a volunteer team leader at the Canal & River Trust, has coordinated what it is hoped will become a bucket-list experience – the opportunity to paddle under the Pennines. The guided 3.5-mile canoe trips are through Standedge Tunnel, a jaw dropping feat of engineering which is 194 metres underground and 196 metres above sea level. The narrow canal tunnel from Marsden in West Yorkshire to Diggle in Greater Manchester opened in 1811 after 17 years of construction. The Guardian was invited for a preview before the trips are launched in a fortnight’s time. Emergency contact details were provided – “just in case” – and McMinn sought to reassure us that the risk of the disease leptospirosis was tiny. “It’s only really if you get wet …

World’s deepest tunnel that’s 35 miles long that cost £9.6bn | World | News

World’s deepest tunnel that’s 35 miles long that cost £9.6bn | World | News

Published by skeptic

At 2,300 metres deep and 57 kilometres long, the Gotthard Base Tunnel broke records when it opened to traffic in 2016. The idea of making a new tunnel in the Swiss Alps to connect the North Sea and the Mediterranean train was first thought up in the 1960s. But it wasn’t until 2012 that the huge project finally came to fruision and work began to construct a specially-designed straight tunnel that would allow trains to travel through at 250km/h. In order to build the tunnel millions of cubic metres of rock had to be excavated from beneath the alps, using huge tunnel boring machines known as “giant moles”. The idea behind the tunnel was to give different parts of Switzerland an economic boost. Construction bosses from Ballast Nedham say the record-breaking structure has been able to cut the journey time between Zurich and Milan to just two hours and 40 minutes – saving an hour from before the structure. Once opened it also took the crown of longest traffic tunnel, at 57km, taking the crown …

How an ancient water tunnel design is cooling 21st-century streets | Water News

How an ancient water tunnel design is cooling 21st-century streets | Water News

Published by Sam

Last summer, temperatures in the southern Spanish city of Seville hit more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The heatwave was so intense it earned itself a name: Heatwave Yago, the city’s second named event in two years. Seville, among other cities in Europe and around the world, is facing temperatures that it was not built to handle. In the summer of 2022, extreme heat melted railway lines and airport tarmac in London, England. In July 2023, Germans started considering midday siestas to escape the sweltering heat. As temperatures soar, cities accustomed to cooler temperatures are seeking ways to adapt that avoid relying on energy-intensive solutions like air conditioning. A small research group in Seville is taking inspiration from ancient Middle Eastern cultures that learned to live with the heat before electricity could provide respite. Some see their efforts as honouring the wisdom of ancient thinkers, while others say that these old systems are far more than a technology – they reflect a mindset of sustainability that today’s world is desperately trying to resurrect. …

13 men plead not guilty to role in Brooklyn synagogue tunnel scuffle

13 men plead not guilty to role in Brooklyn synagogue tunnel scuffle

Published by Sam

NEW YORK (AP) — Thirteen members of the Hasidic Jewish community pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges stemming from their alleged role in a dispute over an illegal tunnel built beneath a historic Brooklyn synagogue. The defendants, many of them international students from Israel, appeared in Brooklyn court Wednesday on charges of reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and obstruction of governmental administration. They were issued a limited protection order that bars them from making any excavations or alterations to the building. They also cannot be in contact with a local rabbi. Prosecutors say the defendants — who ranged in age from 19 to 26 — were involved in a Jan. 8 melee in the basement of the global headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch, a movement of Orthodox Judaism. The dispute erupted after the discovery of an underground passage connecting four buildings within the famed Jewish complex. Proponents of the tunnel said they were carrying out the wishes of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the former Chabad leader and one of Judaism’s most influential leaders, who spoke of expanding the …

Mystery tunnel discovered near Paris prison | Paris

Mystery tunnel discovered near Paris prison | Paris

Published by skeptic

A mysterious tunnel under construction has been discovered near a prison in southern Paris during routine electrical works, although police sources said it did not appear to be part of an escape plan. The discovery was made on Tuesday by a technician from Enedis, which manages the electricity distribution network in France, who was working “in a well for electrical connections” about 450 metres from La Santé prison, a police source said. “Bags of rubble and a bed” had been found at the scene, the source added. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Guillaume Durand, an official in the French capital’s 14th district, where the prison is located, said he doubted …

UK’s huge new £5bn tunnel finally finished but tourists will never be able to walk down it | UK | News

UK’s huge new £5bn tunnel finally finished but tourists will never be able to walk down it | UK | News

Published by skeptic

The construction of a £5billion tunnel in London has been completed after eight years – but you’ll never be able to walk down it. Thames Tideway Tunnel is a 25km-long super sewer designed to slash the level of sewage pollution along a section of the River Thames through central London. Tens of millions of tonnes of storm sewage spill into the river annually, but once operational the super sewer should reduce spills entirely, according to its backers. The final piece of the tunnel – a 1,200 tonne concrete lid – was lifted into place on top of a deep shaft at Abbey Mills Pumping Station in Stratford, east London, on Wednesday (March 27). Tideway has now built the full 15.5 miles (25km) main tunnel, a three mile (4.5km) connection tunnel in south east London and a 1,100m tunnel in south west London. The company’s Chief Exec Andy Mitchell said in a statement : “This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. The underground civil engineering on the Tideway project is now complete following eight …

The world’s giant £41bn underground tunnel that takes passengers just two minutes to pass | World | News

The world’s giant £41bn underground tunnel that takes passengers just two minutes to pass | World | News

Published by skeptic

A giant underground tunnel in Las Vegas worth £41 billion takes passengers a mere two minutes to pass through. The Vegas Loop at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) offers an exciting, fast, and convenient mode of transportation for attendees to traverse the 200-acre campus, completing the journey in just under two minutes. The typical walk between the West Hall to the existing North/Central Hall can take up to 25 minutes but taking a trip on the huge loop will cover it in just 120 seconds. The system is designed by Elon Musk’s The Boring Company and aims to transport more than 4,400 convention attendees per hour across the campus. In 2019, The Boring Construction Company constructed two one-way tunnels spanning 0.8 miles each, along with three passenger stations. These tunnels and stations link the current convention center campus to the 1.4 million square foot West Hall expansion. Passengers can load into vehicles capable of holding three people, with future vehicles capable of holding up to 12 people. Musk’s tunnel system is his futuristic solution …

The London Underground station that’s the furthest distance away from going underground | UK | News

The London Underground station that’s the furthest distance away from going underground | UK | News

Published by skeptic

Chesham Underground station is more than 25 miles from a tunnel on the Underground (Image: Getty ) It’s the world’s oldest underground system but one train station on the network is further than any other from actually going underground. Passengers boarding at Chesham Underground station, in Buckinghamshire, can expect to wait around 25 miles and nearly an hour before they see any sign of going subterranean. The terminus was added to the Underground in the late 1800s and is now part of the Metropolitan line. After leaving Chesham the first tunnel appears along the line between Finchley Road and Baker Street. There are 272 stations on the Tube network but despite it being called the Underground only around 45 percent of stops are actually below the surface. According to Transport for London (TfL), the Victoria line and Waterloo and City line are the only routes that are completely underground. READ MORE… Dog owners warned over 3 breeds likely to be stolen as they’re sold for £3K Baker Street Underground around 25 miles away is the …