Immersed tube

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An immersed tube is a kind of underwater tunnel constructed using segments built elsewhere, floated and sunk into place, welded together, and drained. This method can be considerably cheaper than excavating through rock and is more resistant to earthquake damage. One tradeoff is that immersed tubes are more vulnerable to sabotage than excavated tunnels, since less force is necessary to breach their walls than would be required to penetrate the roof of a tunnel through rock.

The immersed tube is the most frequently applied type applied in the Netherlands.

[edit] Examples

• Hong Kong Cross-Harbour Tunnel
• 63rd Street Tunnel, a four-bore rail tunnel under the East River in New York City
• Sydney Harbour Tunnel - road
• Transbay Tube, a BART rail tunnel under San Francisco Bay
• Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, two-lane automobile tunnel under Detroit River, leading from Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan
• The Posey and Webster Street Tubes, connecting Oakland and Alameda, California.
• The Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore, Maryland.
• Marmaray in Istanbul
• Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork
• Limerick Tunnel in Limerick,Ireland
• The Ted Williams Tunnel in Boston, Massachusetts
• The Maastunnel in Rotterdam, the Netherlands
• The tunnel sections of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

[edit] See also

• Archimedes bridge