Las Raíces Tunnel ( es, Túnel Las Raíces) is a

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 ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. It is the longest of the very few tunnels in the southern

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

and is the second longest of South America (after the 2006 inauguration of the long tunnel ''Fernando Gómez Martínez'' in Colombia). It is located about south of

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

on the paved

Route 181-CH Route 181-CH is a branch line road going eastward from Chile Highway 5 at Victoria to Pino Hachado Pass at the border to Argentina. Through its length the road passes along or close to the cities and towns of Victoria and Lonquimay. All of the ro ...

connecting the city of

Temuco Temuco () is a city and commune, capital of the Cautín Province and of the Araucanía Region in southern Chile. The city is located south of Santiago. The city grew out from a fort of the same name established in 1881 during Chile's invasion ...

with the

pass Pass, PASS, The Pass or Passed may refer to: Places *Pass, County Meath, a townland in Ireland * Pass, Poland, a village in Poland *Pass, an alternate term for a number of straits: see List of straits *Mountain pass, a lower place in a mountai ...

Pino Hachado towards

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. As such, the tunnel serves as a link between the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

s, from

Lebu Lebu may refer to: * Lebu, Chile, a city and capital of the Arauco Province of the Biobio Region of Chile * Lebu River, located in the Arauco Province of the Biobio Region of Chile * LEBU, acronym for Large Eddy Break Up * Libu or Lebu, Egyptian te ...

in Chile to

Bahía Blanca Bahía Blanca (; English: White Bay) is a city in the southwest of the provinces of Argentina, province of Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the seat of government of the Bahía Blanca Partido. It had 3 ...

in Argentina. It is long, located above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

and was inaugurated in 1939. This tunnel allows only one-way traffic, which is regulated by a toll station where a fee of 400

pesos The peso is the monetary unit of several countries in the Americas, and the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries the peso uses the same sign, "$", as many currencies named "dollar" ...

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

) per car is charged. Its average traffic is about 450 vehicles daily, including some heavy fuel trucks coming from Argentina. An alternative to this tunnel is the old scenic gravel road ''Cuesta de Las Raíces'' to be taken northwards about before the western or before the eastern entrance. Feasibility studies began in 1911, with final blueprints ready in 1929. Construction began in 1930 and lasted eight years, with an investment of more than 32 million Chilean pesos of that time. It is wide and high. The railway from Púa to Lonquimay operated through it from 1956 till the 1990s.

Sources

*http://edelect.latercera.cl/medio/articulo/0,0,3255_5666_107831743,00.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20080317071727/http://lonquimay.relacionarse.com/index.php/147146

References

Tunnels in Chile Buildings and structures in La Araucanía Region Transport in La Araucanía Region Tunnels completed in 1956 Road tunnels {{Chile-struct-stub