Why is the Eurotunnel not a bridge?

This accident of geology was one of the two reasons why the fixed link is a tunnel and not a bridge. The other reason is that the Channel is the busiest seaway in the world, with over 600 shipping movements each day. Any bridge or other structure in the Channel would almost certainly be rammed by a ship in due course.



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The tunnel does leak, but it is designed to. Seawater from the rocks above the tunnel drips through and is then pumped away.

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By 1962, it was not sturdy enough to carry the increased load of traffic; the bridge was sold by the City of London in April 1968 to make way for its replacement. The purchaser, Robert P. McCulloch, was an entrepreneur and real estate developer who founded Lake Havasu City.

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The tunnel is actually designed to leak. As Eurotunnel explain on their website, 'seawater from the rocks above the tunnel drips through and is then pumped away.

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A rail tunnel was chosen over proposals for a very long suspension bridge, a bridge-and-tunnel link, and a combined rail-and-road link, and the project was privately financed by a consortium of British and French corporations and banks; the Anglo-French company operating the tunnel is called Eurotunnel.

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Engineers used two systems of tunnel linings – cast iron segments bolted together and precast concrete rings. The TBMs excavated a huge amount of chalk. On the French side, the chalk was crushed, mixed with water, and pumped inland behind a specially built dam 37m high.

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Eurotunnel is now highly profitable, after a difficult start when it was held down by massive debts from the tunnel construction. Debt restructuring in 2007 reversed the company's fortunes — at the expense of thousands of small shareholders who saw their holdings slashed in value.

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How deep is the Channel Tunnel? At its deepest, the tunnel is 75 metres (246 feet) below the sea level. That's the same as 107 baguettes balancing on top of each other.

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