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China plans to build the world's longest underwater tunnel, an expert involved in the project told AFP today, a US$36 billion shortcut between two northern port cities in an earthquake-prone region.
This will allow autos to be loaded on railway wagons and moved at at 220 kilometers per hour along the 123 km tunnel connecting Dalian in Liaoning province and Yantai in Shandong province.
“The underwater tunnel is expected to be completed within the period of the 13th five-year plan [2016 to 2020],'' said Wang Mengshu, a tunnel and railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
“The cost will be around 220 billion yuan and it will be the world's longest underwater tunnel,'' added Wang, who has worked on the plan since 2012.
A blueprint is expected to be submitted to the State Council in April, a report in the China Daily said today.
Wang told the newspaper that journey time would be cut to 40 minutes. The tunnel follows the coastline to the west of Yantai, before veering north across the Bohai Sea.
The tunnel would surpass the combined length of the world's two longest tunnels, Japan's Seikan Tunnel linking Honshu and Hokkaido and the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France.
It would drastically cut the current travel time between the two cities, separated by a 1,400-km drive or about 8 hours by ferry.
Three tunnels in total will be built at least 30 meters below the sea bed, two about 10 meters in diameter, and a third between them for maintenance and emergency vehicles, the China Daily added.
The tunnel runs across two earthquake fault lines, and in 1976 the industrial city of Tangshan in Hebei province – between Shandong and Liaoning – was levelled by an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 7.5, although figures vary.
Dalian to Yantai underwater tunnel to be world's longest - The Standard
This will allow autos to be loaded on railway wagons and moved at at 220 kilometers per hour along the 123 km tunnel connecting Dalian in Liaoning province and Yantai in Shandong province.
“The underwater tunnel is expected to be completed within the period of the 13th five-year plan [2016 to 2020],'' said Wang Mengshu, a tunnel and railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
“The cost will be around 220 billion yuan and it will be the world's longest underwater tunnel,'' added Wang, who has worked on the plan since 2012.
A blueprint is expected to be submitted to the State Council in April, a report in the China Daily said today.
Wang told the newspaper that journey time would be cut to 40 minutes. The tunnel follows the coastline to the west of Yantai, before veering north across the Bohai Sea.
The tunnel would surpass the combined length of the world's two longest tunnels, Japan's Seikan Tunnel linking Honshu and Hokkaido and the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France.
It would drastically cut the current travel time between the two cities, separated by a 1,400-km drive or about 8 hours by ferry.
Three tunnels in total will be built at least 30 meters below the sea bed, two about 10 meters in diameter, and a third between them for maintenance and emergency vehicles, the China Daily added.
The tunnel runs across two earthquake fault lines, and in 1976 the industrial city of Tangshan in Hebei province – between Shandong and Liaoning – was levelled by an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 7.5, although figures vary.
Dalian to Yantai underwater tunnel to be world's longest - The Standard
