Malpas Tunnel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Malpas tunnel was excavated in 1679 under the colline d'Ensérune in Herault, allowing the passage of the Canal du Midi. It was Europe's first navigable canal tunnel and a monument to the determination of Pierre-Paul Riquet, the chief engineer.
There was great disappointment when the works reached the colline d'Ensérune. A few metres of digging in hard rock revealed a very brittle sandstone subject to slippage. Colbert, the prime minister halted the works when he was made aware of the situation. The portal was blocked and the workings re-sited. Riquets detractors took advantage of this situation to impede the project. Colbert announced that he would send royal commissioners to decide the canals future. The advice of the chevalier de Clerville, architect to Louis XIV, was to cross the River Aude rather than tunnel through the hill. Riquet however, maintained his preference for a tunnel because of the extra problems that crossing the Aude would create.
Riquet's response was to ask his master mason Pascal de Nissan to continue tunneling in secret despite the risk of collapse. In less than eight days the tunnel was complete with a concrete ceiling throughout. The tunnel is 165m long and removed the necessity for an extra lock.
Under the Malpas tunnel there are two others at different levels. One is for the Béziers to Narbonne railway line built in the nineteenth century and the other is a tunnel dug to drain the étang de Montady.
[edit] Further Reading
- Roland, Claudine (1997). The Canal du Midi, English Translation, MSM. ISBN 2-9099-9866-5.
