The Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel is a car
tunnel
A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...
under the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...
at
Shallufa. The tunnel is named after
Ahmed Hamdi, an Egyptian engineer and general killed in action during the
October 1973 War. It has two lanes of traffic, one in each direction, and it connects the Asian
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai ( ; ; ; ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Afri ...
to the town of
Suez
Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...
on the African mainland.
Construction
It was originally constructed as a
shield tunnel by
Tarmac Construction in November 1981. In 1992, the
Japanese government granted aid to a project aimed at rehabilitating the tunnel which had developed leaks. It is long and has an outside diameter of .
The tunnel reaches a maximum depth of below ground level.
Significant developments in the region
The tunnel was part of a major drive to develop the areas surrounding the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...
, including other projects such as the
Suez Canal overhead line crossing (completed in 1998), the
El Ferdan Railway Bridge, and the
Suez Canal Bridge (completed in 2001).
See also
*
Trans-African Highway network
References
External links
Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel
Roads in Egypt
Suez Canal
Tunnels in Egypt
Tunnels completed in 1983
Road tunnels in Africa
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