The Tyne Tunnel is a the name given to two two-lane toll vehicular tunnels under the River Tyne in North East England. Completed in 1967 and 2011 respectively, they connect the town of Jarrow on the south bank of the river with North Shields and Howdon on the north. The original tunnel was one of three forming the original Tyne Tunnel Project; the others are the pedestrian and cyclist tunnels opened in 1951. The tunnels are 11 km (7 miles) downstream and to the east of Newcastle upon Tyne and form part of the A19 road.
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A scheme for the construction of a set of three tunnels under the Tyne was put forward by the Durham and Northumberland County Councils in 1937 . After prolonged negotiations with the Ministry of Transport the scheme was approved in 1943. The Tyne Tunnel Act - the legislative instrument necessary to enable the construction of the tunnels - received Royal Assent in 1946. Post war restrictions on capital expenditure delayed the construction of the vehicular tunnel, but work started on the smaller tunnels for pedestrians and cyclists in 1947.
Tyne Cyclist and Pedestrian Tunnel was Britain's first purpose-built cycling tunnel. It runs under the River Tyne between Howdon and Jarrow, and was opened in 1951, heralded as a contribution to the Festival of Britain.[1] The original cost was £833,000[1] And was used by 20,000 people a day.[2] It actually consists of two tunnels running in parallel, one for pedestrian use with a 10 ft 6 in (3.2 m) diameter, and a larger 12 ft (3.7 m) diameter tunnel for pedal cyclists. Both tunnels are 900 ft (270 m) in length, and lie 40 ft (12.2 m) below the river bed.[1] The tunnels are nearly 60 years old and are Grade II listed buildings.[3][4]
At each end, the tunnels are connected to surface buildings by two escalators and a lift. The Waygood-Otis escalators have 306 wooden steps each, and are the original models from 1951.[1] At the time of construction, they were the highest single-rise escalators in the world, with a vertical rise of 85 ft (26 m) and a length of 200 ft (61 m). (In 1992 escalators with a higher vertical rise of 90 ft (27.4 m) and 197 ft (60 m) in length were constructed at Angel station on the London Underground.) The Tyne Tunnel escalators remain the longest wooden escalators in the world.
In a refitting phase the escalators and lift shafts were due to be upgraded by October 2010 to early 2011 at a cost of £500,000.[5]
A £6,000,000 refurbishment is due to take place in 2011.[1]
20,000 people a month use the pedestrian tunnel.[6]
In 2005, The SoundEx filmed a music video to their song Street Freak in the tunnel. The band were able to close the cyclist tunnel off for two days and use it free of charge to bring the tunnel publicity.
The vehicle tunnel is 1,676 metres or 5,500 ft (1.0 mile) long and has a diameter of 31 ft 3 in (9.5 m) with a roadbed 24 ft (7.3 m). It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 19 October 1967, but commenced operational use only in 1968, on completion of the northern link roads. It was designed to handle 25,000 vehicles per day. The original toll for cars was 2s 6d (12.5p).
As of 2011[update], the toll charge for cars is £1.20; vans, trucks, and buses, £1.50, but motorcycles use the tunnel for free. A 10% discount is available to Tyne Tunnel permit holders. The permits are passive electronic discs stuck to the inside of the vehicle's windscreen, which are electronically read by the toll booth's scanner, whereupon the toll is debited from the permit holders account.
Tunnel usage is forecast to rise to 43,000 per day by 2021. In March 2004 the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority launched a scheme to build a second, £139 million tunnel. The tunnel is slightly to the east of the existing tunnel, and the pair will allow each tunnel to serve two lanes of traffic, each travelling in the same direction; the original tunnel had two single lanes of traffic in opposing directions, representing an avoidable risk. The UK Government gave the go-ahead for the scheme in July 2005. Construction work started in Spring 2008, with the new tunnel opening to two-lane bi-directional traffic in February 2011, at which point the original tunnel closed for a ten month refurbishment.
The timeline for the new Tyne Tunnel was as follows:
The construction company building the new tunnel is Bouygues Construction.The tunnel was constructed under a Private Finance Initiative 30 year design build finance operate contract.
The new tunnel was built using the cut-and-cover method. By beginning of November 2009, the land approaches to the tunnel had been excavated, and construction of the tunnel, in four 90-metre (300 ft) long sections, had been completed nearby. The dredger used to excavate the river section of the tunnel cutting arrived on site on 4 November 2009 to excavate 400,000 cubic metres of sediment, which was used to infill the defunct Tyne Dock, reclaiming 13 acres (53,000 m2) of land for use by Port of Tyne.[7] Both ends of the tunnel finally met on 26 May 2010.
The new tunnel is fitted with a fixed fire suppression system which releases a fine mist to contain fires to help motorists leave safely and to prevent damage to the tunnel structure. There is also a separate evacuation corridor which runs adjacent to the main tunnel. Once the old tunnel has been fully refurbished by Winter 2011, it will include many of the same safety features.
The new Tyne crossing will be the safest in the UK thanks to a state-of-the-art active fire suppression system which is now included in its design. It will be the first in the UK to be fitted with a water mist active fire suppression system, and will further ensure the safety of thousands of people who will travel through it every day.
The original 1960s built tunnel was slated as of one the least safe in Europe in 2000, according to a study. Inspectors visited 25 major tunnels around Europe after fire devastated the Mont Blanc tunnel in the Alps, between France and Italy. The Tyne Tunnel was officially rated as "poor" and languishes nearly at the bottom of the European league table.
The inspectors found it had no automatic fire alarm system, poor lighting, no laybys or hard shoulder, and an emergency walkway which could be reached only by able-bodied people. They also criticised its smoke extraction system.
| Next vehicle crossing upstream | River Tyne | Next vehicle crossing downstream |
| Tyne Bridge Newcastle upon Tyne (6 miles (10 km)) |
Tyne Tunnel A19 road Grid reference: NZ329660 |
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| Next pedestrian crossing upstream | River Tyne | Next pedestrian crossing downstream |
| Tyne Pedestrian & Cycle Tunnel | Tyne Tunnel Grid reference: NZ329660 |
Shields Ferry |