The Aktio–Preveza Undersea Tunnel is an

undersea The underwater environment is the region below the surface of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characterist ...

road

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

across the mouth of the

Ambracian Gulf The Ambracian Gulf, also known as the Gulf of Arta or the Gulf of Actium, and in some official documents as the Amvrakikos Gulf ( el, Αμβρακικός κόλπος, translit=Amvrakikos kolpos), is a gulf of the Ionian Sea in northwestern Greec ...

in western

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. It links

Epirus sq, Epiri rup, Epiru , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Historical region , image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg , map_alt = , map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinrich ...

and the city of

Preveza Preveza ( el, Πρέβεζα, ) is a city in the region of Epirus, northwestern Greece, located on the northern peninsula at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf. It is the capital of the regional unit of Preveza, which is part of the region of Epiru ...

on the north shore of the gulf with the cape of Aktio (Actium) in

Aetolia-Acarnania Aetolia-Acarnania ( el, Αιτωλοακαρνανία, ''Aitoloakarnanía'', ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the geographic region of Central Greece and the administrative region of West Greece. A combination of the histor ...

, in

Central Greece Continental Greece ( el, Στερεά Ελλάδα, Stereá Elláda; formerly , ''Chérsos Ellás''), colloquially known as Roúmeli (Ρούμελη), is a traditional geographic region of Greece. In English, the area is usually called Central ...

. Completed in 2002, the tunnel is an important piece of infrastructure in an underdeveloped region, and greatly shortens the travel distance between the two sides of the gulf, which had been only possible by ferry. It is the only

undersea tunnel An underwater tunnel is a tunnel which is partly or wholly constructed under the sea or a river. They are often used where building a bridge or operating a ferry link is unviable, or to provide competition or relief for existing bridges or ferry li ...

in Greece.

Technical characteristics

The tunnel has a total length of 1570 metres and consists of: * An underwater section of total length 909 metres. * A cut and cover section of length 509 metres on the north (Preveza) side. * A cut and cover section of length 152 metres on the south (Aktio) side. The tunnel has a cross-section height of 8.6 metres and width 12.6 meters. The clearance width is 10.6 metres and clearance height is 5.4 metres. The tunnel is a dual way carriage way and includes a 4.0 metre-wide side lane and a 1.3 metre wide pedestrian sidewalk in each direction.

Construction

Construction of the tunnel was a joint venture between Christiani & Nielsen and the Athens-based Technical Company of General Construction (TCGC). The architects of the tunnel were the Copenhagen-based Comar Engineers A/S, and Doxiadis & Zannis of Athens. The contracts was awarded in 1995, and construction was turned over to the Greek Ministry of the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works in 1999. The tunnel was completed in 2002.N. Iversen, O.P. Jensen. ''Preveza-Aktio Crossing - Greece.'' In: C.R. Ford. ''Immersed Techniques 2.'' Thomas Telford, 1997. p. 136

Special techniques used

The tunnel is built in an area of severe seismic activity featuring complex geo-technical conditions. As a result, the tunnel contains a number of advanced features, such as stone columns underneath the tunnel to help it withstand soil liquefaction during an earthquake.

Costs and toll

The total construction cost was approximately 90 million

euros The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . T ...

.E. Kavazanjian. ''Immersed Tunnel Crossing of Aktion - Preveza Strait.'' In: ''Geotechnical engineering for transportation projects: proceedings of Geo-Trans 2004, July 27–31, 2004, Los Angeles, California, Volume 2''. American Society of Civil Engineers, 2004. p. 1464. The current toll is 3 euros.P. Hellander, K. Armstrong. ''Greece'' Lonely Planet, 2006. p 293.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aktio-Preveza Undersea Tunnel 2002 establishments in Greece Preveza Road tunnels in Greece Tunnels completed in 2002 Undersea tunnels in Europe Buildings and structures in Aetolia-Acarnania Buildings and structures in Preveza (regional unit) Toll tunnels in Europe Immersed tube tunnels in Europe