The Aktio–Preveza Undersea Tunnel is an undersea road

tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

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 (), is a gulf of the Ionian Sea in northwestern Greece. About long and wide, it is one of the largest enclosed gulfs ...

in western

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It links

Epirus Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...

and the city of

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

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

Aetolia-Acarnania Aetolia-Acarnania (, ''Aitoloakarnanía'', ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the geographic regions of Greece, geographic region of Central Greece (geographic region), Central Greece and the administrative regions of Greece, ...

, in Central Greece. 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 l ...

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 (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

.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