Imagine what it would be like to drive your car through an underwater tunnel? Well, that’s exactly what Norwegians are already doing and they could eventually be doing a lot more of it. The Scandinavian country is considering a mammoth civil engineering project that will involve floating underwater tunnels.
These unique tunnels are designed to help solve Norway’s fjord problem, which makes it impossible to use anything but suspension bridges. However, the huge distances that need to be covered and difficult terrain make even these types of bridges largely a no-go.
That’s one of the biggest reasons why this underwater tunnel project is being considered by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, which has already committed a whopping $25 billion to the venture. The “underwater bridges” will be held up by pontoons and will feature two tunnels, one for each direction of traffic. In addition, they will be built to withstand tides and currents, and will be placed about a hundred feet under water.
As you can imagine, this is an enormous feat that has never been tried before. For many years, Norwegians have had to rely on ferry service, which is slow. The tunnels would assist with alleviating this problem by helping them get to where they need to go much faster than the current means of travel. For example, right now a 680-mile trip from Kristiansand to Trondheim can take up to 21 hours, which is largely because of the seven ferry trips that are required. The tunnel project could cut that time to just 10 hours by 2035.
If the plan goes through, the benefits of these side-by-side underwater tunnels would go way beyond faster transportation. If successful, their design would also provide an excellent roadmap for other areas to follow around the world, especially for those that face similar challenges.
