Move over Suez, hello Stad Norway to build world's first tunnel for ships

Source: The Guardian

Norway plans to build the world’s first tunnel for ships, a 1,700-metre (5,610-ft) passageway burrowed through a piece of rocky peninsula that will allow vessels to avoid a treacherous part of sea.

The Stad Ship Tunnel, which would be able to accommodate cruise and freight ships weighing up to 16,000 tonnes, is expected to open in 2023.

It will be 37 metres high and 26.5m wide, according to the Norwegian Coastal Administration, and is estimated to cost at least 2.7bn kroner (£250m).

Norway’s transport minister, Ketil Solvik-Olsen, said that sea currents and underwater topography in the country’s south-western coast “result in particularly complex wave conditions”.

Plans for a ship tunnel in Stad had been floated over the years, but now a project with financing was ready, he said.




Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/06/move-over-suez-hello-stad-norway-to-build-worlds-first-tunnel-for-ships