The Rove Tunnel ( French: ''Tunnel du Rove'') is a currently out-of-use

canal tunnel {{Refimprove, date=September 2009 A canal tunnel is a tunnel for a canal. The building of a canal tunnel is crucial to help a waterway that is normally used for shipping cross a difficult section of terrain. They are also constructed to reduce th ...

Southern France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French language, French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi ...

that connected the

16th arrondissement of Marseille The 16th arrondissement of Marseille is one of the 16 arrondissements of Marseille. It is governed locally together with the 15th arrondissement 15 (fifteen) is the natural number following 14 and preceding 16. Mathematics 15 is: * A com ...

to the

Étang de Berre The Étang de Berre (in Provençal Occitan: ''estanh de Bèrra / mar de Bèrra'' according to classical orthography, ''estang de Berro / mar de Berro'' according to Mistralian orthography) is a brackish water lagoon on the Mediterranean coast of ...

in the

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and large ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

from 1927 to 1963. It allowed for waterway transport avoiding the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

towards the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

within the larger Canal de Marseille au Rhône. With a length of it was a major work of civil engineering; it remains the longest canal tunnel in the world.

Description

The tunnel was the most challenging section of the Canal de Marseille au Rhône, which connected Marseille to the

river. The canal has a total length of . The tunnel starts near the village of

Le Rove Le Rove (; oc, Lo Rove) is seaside a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southern France.

; it provides a sea level passage through the maximum altitude . The tunnel is long, wide and high. The water depth is . It remains the biggest canal tunnel in the world, as far as shipping canals are concerned. As a part of the Canal de Marseille au Rhône, it used to connect the

in the north with

L'Estaque L'Estaque is a village in southern France, just west of Marseille. Administratively, it belongs to the commune of Marseille. Overview Many artists of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist periods visited or resided there or in the surrounding ...

in the south, both hosting a part of Marseille's industrial harbour.

History

The possibility of building a canal tunnel had been discussed for many years. A proposal was developed for the Marseille Chamber of Commerce in 1879 by the engineer Guérard, but no action was taken until an act of 24 December 1903 authorised the project. The initial plan was for an wide tunnel, which would only allow one-way traffic at any time, but this was later increased to for two-way traffic despite the increase in cost. Preparatory work began in 1906. Underground work began in 1910, using compressed air hammers to break through the rock. The contractor simultaneously worked from the south and from the north, and on a ventilation tunnel. Geological studies had not indicated any aquifer, but in fact the work was seriously affected by various irruptions of water. Work accelerated after the declaration of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

on 1 August 1914. The labourers included Spanish and Portuguese nationals, who replaced Italians recalled to their country at the outbreak of war, as well as German prisoners of war. On 19 February 1916 the central plug separating the north and south sections at from the south portal was removed by dynamite. On 7 May 1916

Marcel Sembat Marcel Sembat (, 19 October 1862 – 5 September 1922) was a French Socialist politician. He served as a member of the National Assembly of France from 1893 to 1922, and as Minister of Public Works from August 26, 1914, to December 12, 1916. B ...

, Minister of Public Works, accompanied by

Joseph Thierry Joseph Marie Philippe Thierry (2 March 1857 – 22 September 1918) was a French lawyer and politician. He was deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône from 1898 to 1918. He was Minister of Public Works in 1913 and Minister of Finance in 1917. As Minister of F ...

, Undersecretary of State for War, inaugurated the Rove Tunnel and the first two cranes of

Port-de-Bouc Port-de-Bouc (; oc, Lo Pòrt de Boc) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. Population See also *Communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône department The following is a list of the 119 communes of the Bouches-du- ...

. After many delays, the full canal was finally opened to traffic on 25 April 1927. Water had been flowing through it since 1925. It was closed in 1963 after a section of the tunnel collapsed. File:Tunnel du Rove69.JPG, Northern entrance (2010) File:Tunnel du Rove75.JPG, Gallery on the Marignane side (2010) File:Niche d'amarrage creusée sur les bas côtés du tunnel du Rove.JPG, Mooring niche (2013) File:L'éboulement terrassé sous le tunnel du Rove.JPG, Rubble from the 1963 collapse (2013)

References

Sources

* * * * {{refend Canal tunnels in France Tunnels completed in 1927 Transport in Marseille