The Chunnel Project

Case Study: The Chunnel Project

Introduction

The project, The Channel Tunnel, is the largest privately financed engineering project in history. The tunnel is thirty-two miles in length and stretches beneath the English Channel from Cheriton, Kent in England to the town of Sangatte in the Nord Pas-de-Calais region of France. Each terminal of the tunnel is linked in both national highway and rail systems. The Chunnel consists of three tunnels: Two main rail tunnels; Northbound and Southbound, and the service tunnel which is smaller in diameter, and located between the two main units. The service tunnel allowing access for maintenance, evacuation in case emergency and supply for air. Compared to the 12 hours trip between London and Paris by rail and ferry, the tunnel takes 3 1/2 hours for rail passengers. This high-speed rail system is providing Europe with one of the finest transport network in the world.

During the project phases, the project came across some unexpected problems, resulting in cost and schedule delays. The completed project had an overrun of US$9.9 billion (Anbari et al., 2005). Some of these problems will be further discussed later on.

Overall, the whole construction project was generally accomplished successfully. In addition, The Chunnel can be viewed as modern-day engineering.