HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

{{Refimprove, date=September 2009 A canal tunnel is a
tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
for a
canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface f ...
. The building of a canal tunnel is crucial to help a waterway that is normally used for shipping cross a difficult section of terrain. They are also constructed to reduce the dependency on canal locks. The longest canal tunnel in the world is the
Rove Tunnel The Rove Tunnel ( French: ''Tunnel du Rove'') is a currently out-of-use canal tunnel in Southern France that connected the 16th arrondissement of Marseille to the Étang de Berre in the Bouches-du-Rhône department from 1927 to 1963. It allowed fo ...
in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, currently disused. Other notable examples of canal tunnels include the proposed
Stad Ship Tunnel The Stad Ship Tunnel ( no, Stad skipstunnel) is a planned canal and tunnel to bypass the Stad peninsula in Stad Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The peninsula is one of the most exposed areas on the coast, without any outlying islands to ...
in
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
, a proposed tunnel for sea going vessels, Standedge Tunnel, the longest, deepest and highest in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
and
Harecastle Tunnel Harecastle Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal in Staffordshire between Kidsgrove and Tunstall. The tunnel, which is long, was once one of the longest in the country. Its industrial purpose was for the transport of coal t ...
, another noteworthy tunnel in the UK. The oldest canal tunnel in the world is the
Malpas Tunnel The Malpas tunnel carries the Canal du Midi under the d'Ensérune hill in Hérault, France. Excavated in 1679, it was Europe's first navigable canal tunnel and is a monument to the determination of Pierre-Paul Riquet, the chief engineer. It is l ...
also in France, built in 1679. In some canal tunnels the
towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport w ...
continues through the tunnel. In other cases, especially on English narrow canals, there is no towpath. The horse would be led over the hill and the boat would be propelled by legging. The term "canal tunnel" is not commonly applied to tunnels used to conduct water (for irrigation, water supply, etc.), such as the 48-kilometre-long Arpa- Sevan tunnel in
Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''O ...
(see
List of longest tunnels This list of longest tunnels ranks tunnels that are at least long. Only continuous tunnels are included. Pipelines, even those that are buried, are excluded. The longest tunnels have been constructed for water distribution, followed by tunnels ...
), or a number of tunnels on the
Irtysh–Karamay–Ürümqi Canal The Irtysh–Karamay–Ürümqi Canal (), also known as the Project 635 () Canal, is a system of water-transfer canals and reservoirs in the northern part of China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. It transfers water from the Irtysh River (whi ...
in China. For those, the term water tunnel is more commonly used. Canal tunnels were made in the
Kingdom of Travancore The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
as early as 1876.


See also

*
List of canal tunnels in the United Kingdom This is a list of canal tunnels in the United Kingdom. Listed by name Navigatable adits and mine levels An adit is a horizontal entrance to a mine: Listed by canal Grand Union Canal * Blisworth Tunnel, Northamptonshire * Braunston Tunnel, ...


Sources


Rove Tunnel
at Wikimapia
Canal du Midi



Standedge Tunnel
Canals Water transport infrastructure