Concept, reality and expectations - Management of the project - Tunnel design and construction - Geology, alignment and survey - Machine-driven tunnels - Major Underground structures - Construction planning and logisitics - Tunnel lining design and procurement

A history of the building of the Channel Tunnel, which connects England and France, with emphasis on the difficulties of digging a tunnel where some engineers said it could not be done.

The seven refereed papers in this special issue of ICE Proceedings cover the planning, design and construction of the UK terminal buildings of the -u10 billion Channel Tunnel project. Written by senior members of the project team, the papers place the terminal in context with other surface works and describe its development from concept to construction. Emphasis is given to the complex relationships which existed between the many statutory bodies, interested parties and local populations together with the responses made to concerns on environmental issues.

The Channel Tunnel is a huge construction project, employing over 14,000 people at peak, and costing over 15611 billion of private money. It has succeeded in spite of great financial, political and techncial difficulties, and a fundamentally flawed contract. This book tells the story of the project, based on the coverage in Construction News and with commentary taken from recent interviews with key project sources.

The Channel Tunnel has been called the greatest engineering project of the century, overcoming a unique set of financial, political and engineering challenges. This book provides a comprehensive insight into the events which culminated in the first dry link between Britain and France. It describes the relationship between the site investigation, data interpretation and construction of the works. It examines areas such as the difficulties inherent in predicting geology from a relatively small number of boreholes and revealing how the use of modern geophysical techniques.

The Channel Tunnel may be the greatest engineering project in Europe this century. This book describes the tremendous engineering achievement of the construction of the tunnel. Written by twenty of the key engineers involved, it provides a fascinating, informative and inspiring account of the project for both engineering professionals and general readers.

This study uses the Channel Tunnel between England and France to explore the shifting geographies of nationalism, postcolonialism, and legal autonomy in the formation of the European Union. It looks at regional differences in feelings about Europe and at vocabulary used in discussing the Tunnel.

Commissioned by the Cabinet Office and using hitherto untapped British Government records, this book presents an in-depth analysis of the successful project of 1986-94. This is a vivid portrayal of the complexities of quadripartite decision-making (two countries, plus the public and private sectors), revealing new insights into the role of the British and French Governments in the process. This important book, written by Britain’s leading transport historian, will be essential reading for all those interested in PPPs, British and European economic history and international relations. The building of the Channel Tunnel has been one of Europe’s major projects and a testimony to British-French and public-private sector collaboration. However, Eurotunnel’s current financial crisis provides a sobering backcloth for an examination of the British Government’s long-term flirtation with the project, and, in particular, the earlier Tunnel project in the 1960s and early 1970s, which was abandoned by the British Government in 1975.