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http://news.travel.aol.com/2010/08/16/most-ambitious-transportation-projects-of-the-21st-century/ Most Ambitious Transportation Projects of the 21st Century

Johannes Simon, Getty Images Anyone who has had their commute dis- rupted by bulldozers and pavers knows how long it takes to patch one small stretch of highway. But what about when the project is more elaborate — say, blasting through the Alps or tunneling under the largest city in the country? As our world gets smaller and everyone wants to make connections faster, countries all over are undergoing major projects that would change the way we get from Point A to Point B. Some are already in the works while others are pipe dreams (Can you imagine getting from New York to in an hour?). And as Bostonians learned during the Big Dig, these undertakings don’t happen quickly. Read on for the world’s most ambitious transportation projects. pub, fret not: a Transatlantic could will excavate most of the route, a challeng- make such a craving a reality. The hypo- ing proposition, especially noting the ubiq- thetical tunnel would whisk travelers be- uitous high-rises blanketing the area. And History Channel tween Manhattan and London in trains engineers must be alert to the ever-chang- 10. Canada’s Ice Road that reach speeds of 5,000 mph, making ing geology along the route, which includes This 353-mile road in Canada’s North- the 3,100-mile-long connection in less than sands, clays, faults, shear zones, and frac- west Territories is the world’s longest an hour. Technically, the project would be tured rock. The scheduled completion of heavy-haul ice road, with more than 300 daunting, with the floating tunnel tethered Phase One, from 105th Street to 63rd miles constructed over frozen lakes — and to massive anchors sunk into the sea floor. Street, has been delayed twice (from 2014 it has to be rebuilt every year. Starting in More than 50,000 tunnel sections would be to 2016), while Phases Two, Three, and January, workers fight wind-chills that required, each transported into place by a Four lack funding and — like the prospect drop to 50 below, using water trucks, bull- gargantuan immersion pontoon. For those of finding an apartment for less than dozers, and plows as they build an eight- looking for a truly international experience, $2,000 a month — may be merely wishful lane highway that, as the ice below thick- connections between London and Paris thinking. ens, can support eight-axle big rigs. To test could also be offered, enabling New York- the safety of the road, workers use high- ers to grab a Nutella crêpe along the Discovery Communications, LLC tech radar to profile the ice sheet and, if Champs-Élysées and return to their office 7. Bering Strait Crossing needed, water trucks add water to increase in less time than it takes to lunch at a neigh- A direct Asia- link, span- the thickness of the ice, which can exceed borhood Applebee’s. ning the 50 miles of frigid seawater be- 42 inches. Once completed, loaded trucks tween Russia’s Chukotka Peninsula and are limited to speeds of up to 15 mph over Daniel Barry, Bloomberg / Getty Images Alaska’s Seward Peninsula, would be more ice and 18 mph over the 64 land portages. 8. New York’s Second Av- than politically symbolic. At least one plan And the procession of vehicles is nearly enue Subway envisions shuttling petroleum worth bil- continuous, owing to the small two-month Plans for a subway line along lions between the two continents. While the window during which conditions allow safe Manhattan’s Second Avenue were pro- shallow depth of the Strait’s waters poses transit. By mid-April, the road is closed, posed as early as 1929, and progress has fi- few construction challenges, building with Mother Nature converting the icy nally been made. The four-phase, $17 bil- would be limited to less than six months a stretches back to impassable, frigid waters. lion Second Avenue Subway project con- year since winter temps dip to 50 below. necting the 8.5-mile stretch under Second And a bridge would require anchoring Discovery Communications, LLC Avenue from Harlem to Lower Manhattan more than 200 enormous piers, with self- 9. Transatlantic Tunnel officially broke ground in April 2007. Tun- propelled cranes transporting pre-con- New Yorkers longing for a carryout out neling beneath millions of Manhattanites is structed segments. Despite excessive care, lunch of bangers and mash from a London no easy feat, and a tunnel-boring machine all could still be for naught as six-foot-thick

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ice chunks floating freely in the water could Chunnel, as the Gibraltar Strait waters are Capitol Hill these days, its final status re- cause significant trauma to any final struc- significantly deeper and less stable than the mains unresolved. Routes connecting Vir- ture. All of this, of course, assumes the allo- English Channel. The Azores-Gibraltar ginia to North Carolina and to Illinois cation of boatloads of dollars and rubles re- Transform Fault cuts through the Strait, through Kentucky are completed and a quired for such a massive undertaking. which previously has generated violent Michigan route is scheduled to be ready in Some estimates peg the cost at more than earthquakes. The nine-mile journey would 2011. $100 billion, not including the tab for need to be reworked to a winding 25-mile building a transit infrastructure on either tunnel, with a proposed construction time- Johannes Simon, Getty Images side — at least 500 miles of roads or rail- line that would take more than 15 years to 2. Gotthard Base Tunnel ways would be required on the U.S. side complete. But this longer tunnel would still Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel, alone. pose significant engineering challenges, as which is set to open in 2017, will be the cul- it would pass through water roughly 980- mination of nearly a quarter of a century of Wikipedia feet deep, almost 50 feet deeper than the digging. At just over 94 miles long, the 6. Shanghai’s High-Speed world’s deepest undersea tunnel. world’s largest railway tunnel will shave an hour off the existing Zurich-Milan train Rail Alamy Shanghai has the world’s largest rail sys- route by plunging through miles of majestic tem — and it’s getting bigger. The city al- 4. Irish Sea Tunnel Alps. Currently, north-south trains travel- ready has 261 miles of lines (as opposed to As early as 1897, money has been spent ing through the Gotthard Pass (a vital pas- London’s 253 miles and New York’s 228 investigating the feasibility of a tunnel link- sageway in ) are limited in size, ow- miles). Major work is underway on more ing Ireland and Great Britain. More than a ing to a mind-numbing procession of spiral than 85 additional miles, which are sched- century later, both the Irish and British that span a great height differen- uled for completion by 2012. An additional governments have formally addressed the tial. But the new tunnel will eliminate those 180 miles of lines is planned for use by idea on numerous occasions, though it re- bottlenecks, allowing standard freight 2020. If all goes according to schedule, the mains theoretical. At least five possible trains to pass easily and often, at speeds ex- city will offer more transit coverage than all routes have been identified, each varying in ceeding 150 mph. The construction is tak- of Japan. A transit-starved population will complexity and geological concerns. Infra- ing place in five different sites via four ac- embrace each new mile with standing- structure shortcomings elevate projects cess tunnels, a timesaving gesture that’s room-only enthusiasm: Daily ridership in cost estimates. Any tunnel linking the two oh-so-Swiss. Site access is tricky if not 2009 averaged more than 3.5 million peo- islands would require the use of electric treacherous, with one station requiring an ple and a record 6.5 million people traction, which means lines on both ends access tunnel more than half-a-mile from scrounged for seats on a single day in July must run via electricity — which the major- the valley floor, at the end of which two 2010. Shanghai isn’t alone in China as a ity of Ireland’s trains do not. shafts drop precipitously more than half-a- rapid transit up-and-comer. The country mile to the base tunnel level. has committed $150 billion to metro mass Kathy Versluys, Adventure Cycling Asso- transit for projects through 2015, the ciation Lycas50, Wikipedia largest urban transportation investment in 3. United States Bicycle 1. Marmaray Tube Tunnel history. Route System Eight-mile-long tunnels are perhaps Adventure Cycling have been working passé for the Swiss, but they only have to SSPL / Getty Images tirelessly along with the American Associa- contend with impenetrable mountains, not 5. Strait of Gibraltar tion of State Highway and Transportation major earthquakes. The latter will be the Officials to accommodate the growing risk for Turkey’s Marmaray Tube Tunnel, Crossing the world’s deepest immersed tube tunnel. Arthur Clarke proposed a Strait of number of bike enthusiasts longing for a seamless inter- and intra-state system for The tunnel, which will connect Asia to Eu- Gibraltar crossing in his 1979 science fic- rope, is routed near the North Anatolian tion novel The Fountains of Paradise, but motor-free transit. The United States Bicy- cle Route System will be a 50,000-mile net- Fault, which according to experts has connecting Europe to Africa is not just the greater than a 60-percent chance of gener- working of science fiction. In 2003 the work of at least 29 routes. Perhaps the most incredible aspect of the project is its rela- ating a sizable seismic event within the next Spanish and Moroccan governments un- 30 years. As a result, while much of the tun- dertook a study to investigate the feasibility tively low cost compared to most public transportation projects. The routes mostly nel will bore through rock, a mile-long sec- of connecting the two countries by either tion under the Istanbul Strait will be en- bridge or tunnel. Several engineers have leverage existing infrastructure, though when gaps exist (i.e. bridges that don’t ac- cased in an immersed tube along the come forth with proposals, from a bridge seabed. This underwater habitrail will inte- comprised of three-mile spans to a sub- commodate cyclists), states seek funding through traditional sources. The entire grate flexible, steel plate joints designed to merged bridge that traverses a three mile- withstand major quakes. When complete in wide floating island. But this would be no project has been proposed as a state-match funded program, though like many bills on 2013, the tunnel will provide a vital rail link

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for Turks, whose rail usage is predicted to climb from roughly 3 percent to 27 percent, the world’s third highest.

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