Open China's longest underwater highway tunnel

After nearly four years of construction, the 10.79km-long Taihu underwater highway tunnel in Jiangsu province, about 50km east of Shanghai, has been put into operation.

According to the Jiangsu provincial government, the construction cost of this highway tunnel is $1.56 billion. Construction began on January 9, 2018.

Engineers used more than 2 million cubic meters of concrete to build the two-way tunnel with six lanes, 17.45 meters wide, according to Xinhua. The ceiling of the tunnel is fitted with colored LED lights, designed to reduce driver fatigue.

Taihu Tunnel is located in Changzhou - Wuxi Expressway, open to traffic on December 30, 2021. The project provides an alternative highway route for passengers to travel between Shanghai and Nanning, the capital of Jiangsu province. Connecting with the highways of Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, the route was built to relieve traffic pressure in the cities by Taihu Lake, while promoting economic development in the delta region. Yangtze River.

The Taihu Tunnel is the longest underwater highway tunnel in China today.

The Taihu Tunnel is the longest underwater highway tunnel in China today. In the world, the longest underwater highway tunnel in the world is the 14.3 km long Ryfast dual tunnel in Norway, connecting the city of Stavanger with the Strand province. The underwater tunnel of the Aqua-Line Expressway is located under Tokyo Bay with a length of 9.6km. However, the record for the longest underwater tunnel belongs to the English Channel tunnel, which connects Britain and France by rail. The underwater part of the tunnel is 37.9 km long.