Hello Donald
There are indeed boring machines left in the Chunnel, after parts
which could be re-used were stripped away.
The first breakthrough in the Chunnel came with the meeting of English
and French workers in the service tunnel in 1990.
"The British machine stopped once it laid parallel and head to tail
with the French machine. The English mole was stripped of anything
salvageable. It was then entombed with concrete. The French tunneling
machine then was hollowed out. Its outer shell would serve as the
tunnel lining."
(information from: Fetherston, Drew The Chunnel. New York: Random
House 1997)
http://www.hotchkiss.k12.co.us/hhs/English/webfolios/mattjen/chunmj.htm
Then the first rail tunnel was completed in May 1991.
22 May 1991
"Undersea rail tunnel completed
LONDON - A drilling machine under the English Channel Wednesday
completed the first of two rail tunnels that will carry trains between
Britain and France
[...]
The drilling machine that started at the British end of the Channel
tunnel, known as ``Chunnel,'' was driven downwards at a sharp angle
three weeks ago and buried in concrete, allowing the French machine to
complete the tunnel."
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?selm=1991May22.161608.4986%40elroy.jpl.nasa.gov&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain
There are a couple of other, less detailed sources which confirm the
general idea:
"The French TBM was pulled back to France, but the British one is
buried under the middle of the tunnel and is used as a system ground
connection."
http://www.ece.uwaterloo.ca/~ieee_kw/Newsletters/mar_96.html
(There were actually 11 TBMs - tunnel boring machines- used
altogether.)
"..the British TBMs are buried under the Channel and I believe the
French TBMs
have been broken up as they were unable to sell then on, despite
various
projects to use them to dig a tunnel to the Isle of Wight, Ireland,
Novia
Scotia etc."
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?q=%22channel+tunnel%22+OR+chunnel++machine+OR+mole+++OR+tbm++%22used+as+OR+for%22&start=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=417225374b%25rail%40greywall.demon.co.uk&rnum=15
And you may be interested in this discussion of exactly which parts
were left and which salvaged:
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=aov9df%24rdk%241%40newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dentombed%2Bgroup:uk.rec.subterranea%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26group%3Duk.rec.subterranea%26selm%3Daov9df%2524rdk%25241%2540newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk%26rnum%3D1
Further information
===================
A diagram of the various tunnels
http://www.cornwallis.kent.sch.uk/intranet/elearn/science/eurotunn/1constru1.htm
More on tunnel boring machines
http://www.engineering.com/community/engineering/engmarvel/chunnel2.htm
Thanks for an interesting question. I enjoyed the challenge of finding
the scraps of information on this subject, hidden amongst the
plentiful explanations of the engineering in general.
Please don't hesitate to ask if you would like me to clarify anything
and I will do my best.
Regards - Leli
searches used various combinations of these words:
chunnel "channel tunnel" eurotunnel
map diagram construction
tbm "boring machine" "drilling machine" mole
buried entombed concrete lining "used for" "used as" |
