It will cost up to an estimated 260 billion yuan (US$41.6 billion) - almost three times that of Three Gorges Project Dam Project - but will cut a 1,600-kilometer drive - six hours by train or eight hours by ferry - to just 40 minutes, with bullet trains running through the tunnel at 250 kilometers per hour.
And at 123-kilometers, it will be the longest underwater tunnel built. EVER.
Connecting the port cities of Dalian in Liaoning Province and Yantai in Shandong Province, the Bohai Bay project has attracted controversy over its cost - even the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway cost a conservative 200 billion yuan - but the final report has been worked out and construction, first suggested in 1992, is expected to begin around 2016, and completed in 2026.
It is not without controversy though.
All those in for say passenger trips between the two sides of the Bohai Bay are projected to reach 300 million by 2020. And that 60 to 80 percent of these, or 180 to 240 million, will go via the tunnel.
All those against say the 300 million estimate would be “impossible” to achieve by 2020, as the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway took three years to reach 200 million. About 6.5 million people traveled between the two cities in 2011.
“How can the passenger numbers between Dalian and Yantai surpass that of Shanghai and Beijing?” Zhao Jian, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, said. Zhao suggested that the project should be delayed by 20 years until there is sufficient demand.
Some seismologists have also expressed concerns over safety as the tunnel lies within a 2,400-kilometer zone which has a history of major earthquakes.
However, the seismological bureaus in both Dalian and Yantai have said that the planned tunnel will be strong enough to resist earthquakes. In no way influenced, we're sure, by the State Council's recently issued guideline on promoting growth in China’s old industrial base of its northeast regions.
Big is beautiful, and seaquakes are for sissies.
0 User Comments