Archimedes bridge
Encyclopedia
Tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
that floats in water, supported by its buoyancy
Buoyancy
In physics, buoyancy is a force exerted by a fluid that opposes an object's weight. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus a column of fluid, or an object submerged in the fluid, experiences greater pressure at the bottom of the...
(specifically, by employing the hydrostatic thrust, or Archimedes' Principle).
The tube is placed underwater, deep enough to avoid water traffic and weather, but not so deep that high water pressure needs to be dealt with—usually 20–50 m (60–150 ft) is sufficient. Cables
Tether
A tether is a cord, fixture, or signal that anchors something movable to a reference point which may be fixed or moving. There are a number of applications for tethers: balloons, kites, tethered wind-energy conversion systems, anchors, tethered water-flow energy conversion systems, towing, animal...
either anchored to the Earth or to pontoon
Pontoon (boat)
A pontoon is a flotation device with buoyancy sufficient to float itself as well as a heavy load. A pontoon boat is a flattish boat that relies on pontoons to float. Pontoons may be used on boats, rafts, barges, docks, floatplanes or seaplanes. Pontoons may support a platform, creating a raft. A...
s at the surface prevent it from floating to the surface or submerging, respectively.
Construction
Pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge or floating bridge is a bridge that floats on water and in which barge- or boat-like pontoons support the bridge deck and its dynamic loads. While pontoon bridges are usually temporary structures, some are used for long periods of time...
s and offshore structures, but the construction is mostly similar to that of immersed tunnels
Immersed tube
An immersed tube is a kind of underwater tunnel composed of segments, constructed elsewhere and floated to the tunnel site to be sunk into place and then linked together. They are commonly used for road and rail crossings of rivers, estuaries and sea channels/harbours...
: One way is to build the tube in sections in a dry dock; then float these to the construction site and sink them into place, while sealed; and, when the sections are fixed to each other, the seals are broken. Another possibility is to build the sections unsealed, and after welding them together, pump the water out.
The ballast
Ballast tank
A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water.-History:The basic concept behind the ballast tank can be seen in many forms of aquatic life, such as the blowfish or argonaut octopus, and the concept has been invented and reinvented many times by...
used is calculated so that the structure has approximate hydrostatic equilibrium (that is, the tunnel is roughly the same overall density as water), whereas immersed tube tunnels are ballasted more to weight them down to the sea bed. This, of course, means that a submerged floating tunnel must be anchored to the ground or to the water surface to keep it in place (which of these depends on which side of the equilibrium point the tunnel is).
Applications
Seismic wave
Seismic waves are waves of energy that travel through the earth, and are a result of an earthquake, explosion, or a volcano that imparts low-frequency acoustic energy. Many other natural and anthropogenic sources create low amplitude waves commonly referred to as ambient vibrations. Seismic waves...
and weather events easily (as they have some degree of freedom in regards to movement), and their structural performance is independent of length (that is, it can be very long without compromising its stability and resistance).
On the other hand, they may be vulnerable in regards to anchors or submarine traffic, which therefore has to be taken in consideration when building one.
Likely applications include fjords, deep, narrow sea channels, and deep lakes.
Proposals
A submerged floating tunnel has never been built, but several proposals have been presented by different entities.| Date | Place | Country | Proposer | link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Channel English Channel The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover... |
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
Sir Edward James Reed Edward James Reed Sir Edward James Reed , KCB, FRS, was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870... |
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| Strait of Messina Strait of Messina The Strait of Messina is the narrow passage between the eastern tip of Sicily and the southern tip of Calabria in the south of Italy. It connects the Tyrrhenian Sea with the Ionian Sea, within the central Mediterranean... |
Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... |
Alan Grant Alan Grant Alan Grant is a Scottish comic book writer known for writing Judge Dredd in 2000 AD as well as various Batman titles during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is also the creator of the character Anarky.-Early career:... |
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| Høgsfjord Høgsfjord thumb|Høgsfjord near [[Dirdal]].thumb|Ferry MF Høgsfjord- Fjord :Høgsfjorden is a fjord in Rogaland county, Norway. The fjord starts near Idse in Strand and ends near Frafjord in Gjesdal. The Lysefjord branches off from the Høgsfjord near the village Forsand... |
Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
Norwegian Public Roads Administration Norwegian Public Roads Administration The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is a Norwegian government agency responsible for the state and county public roads in the country. This includes planning, construction and operation of the state and county road networks, driver training and licensing, vehicle inspection and subsidies to... |
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| Transatlantic tunnel Transatlantic tunnel A transatlantic tunnel is a theoretical tunnel which would span the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe and would carry mass transit of some type—trains are envisioned in most proposals.Using advanced technologies, speeds of are envisaged.... |
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav... 's Extreme Engineering Extreme Engineering Extreme Engineering is a documentary television series that airs on the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. The program features futuristic and ongoing engineering projects. As of April 2011, the show is airing its ninth season. Danny Forster first hosted the series in season 4 and has been... (Season 1, episode 3) |
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| Funka Bay, Hokkaido Hokkaido , formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel... |
Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
Society of Submerged Floating Tunnel Technology | ||
| Lake Washington Lake Washington Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It is bordered by the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south and... , Seattle |
United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
James Felch / Subterra | ||
| Vancouver Island Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794... |
Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
Ministry of Transportation Minister of Transport (Canada) The Minister of Transport is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's transportation regulatory and development department, Transport Canada... of British Columbia British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858... , Canada |
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| Lugano Lake | Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
Italy and China
Ponte di Archimede International, an Italian company, investigated the SFT in collaboration with the Norwegian Roads Research Laboratory, the Danish Road Institute and the Italian Shipping Register, with a financial grant from the European Union and the coordination of FEHRL (Forum European Highways Research Laboratories) an International Association of 22 Public Road Administrations. Furthermore the Provincial Administrations of ComoComo
Como is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....
(Como Lake) and Lecco
Lecco
Lecco is a town of c. 47,760 inhabitants in Lombardy, northern Italy, north of Milan, the capital of the province of Lecco. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como...
, in Italy, have officially shown great interest in the Archimede's Bridge for crossing the Lario and the study of the submerged floating tunnel in the Strait of Messina has been promoted by Ponte di Archimede S.p.A. and verified with a feasibility analysis by the Italian Naval Register (RINA).
The SIJLAB (Sino-Italian Joint Laboratory of Archimedes' Bridge), created in 1998, between Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China and Ponte di Archimede S.p.A., is financed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Sciences , formerly known as Academia Sinica, is the national academy for the natural sciences of the People's Republic of China. It is an institution of the State Council of China. It is headquartered in Beijing, with institutes all over the People's Republic of China...
.
The consortium has started to build a 100m demonstration tunnel in Qiandao Lake
Qiandao Lake
Qiandao Lake is a man-made lake located in Chun'an County, Zhejiang, China, formed since the completion of the Xin'an River hydroelectric station. There are 1,078 large islands in the lake and a few thousand smaller ones. It covers an area of 573 km² and has a storage capacity of 17.8 km³...
in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
eastern province of Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
. Inside it, two layers of one-way motorways will run though in the middle, with two railway tracks flanking them. The Qiandao Lake prototype will serve to help plan for the project of a 3,300-meter submerged floating tunnel in the Jintang Strait
Jintang Island
Jintang Island is an island in the Zhoushan prefecture-level city in China's northeastern Zhejiang province. It has a population of about 41700....
, in the Zhoushan
Zhoushan
Zhoushan or Zhoushan Archipelago New Area; formerly transliterated as Chusan, is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Zhejiang province of Eastern China. The only prefecture-level city of the People's Republic of China consisting solely of islands, it lies across the mouth of the Hangzhou Bay,...
archipelago, also situated in Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
.
According to Elio Matacena, the President of Ponte Archimede di International, the only constraint to build such tunnels in deeper waters is the price of the structure. Namely, the cables, which are very expensive, would be very long. He also refers that the bridge is capable of supporting more weight than a traditional bridge, which has very strict weight limits, while being up to two times cheaper. Matacena points out that the environmental studies carried on show that the bridge would have a very low impact on the aquatic life.
Indonesia
IndonesiaIndonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
has also expressed interest in this technology. For the infrastructure, that would connect Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, there were two options, a conventional bridge or the undersea tunnel.
On 2004 the tunnel option was more widely discussed, specially when Kwik Kian Gie
Kwik Kian Gie
Kwik Kian Gie was the Indonesian Coordinating Minister of Economics and Finance from 1999–2000, and Minister of National Development Planning from 2001-2004....
, then the Minister of National Development announced that a European consortium was interested in investing in the undersea tunnel between Java and Sumatra. The budget was told to be around 15 billion US dollars for the undersea tunnel in the Sunda Strait
Sunda Strait
The Sunda Strait is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean...
; in long term it would link up Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
, Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
, Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, Malaysia and Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
in an uninterrupted chain. The project was planned to start construction in 2005 and be ready to use by 2018, and was a part of the Asian Highway
AH2
The AH2 is a road in the Asian Highway Network running 8230 miles from Denpasar, Indonesia to Khosravi, Iran. The route is as follows:-Indonesia:Denpasar — Surabaya — Surakarta — Semarang — Cikampek — Jakarta...
.
However, the bridge option was later favored.
In 2007, Indonesian experts, led by Ir. Iskendar, Director for the Center of Assessment and Application of Technology for Transportation System and Industries, participated in a meeting with SIJLAB engineers, from the sino-Italian Archimedes Bridge project. As an archipelagic
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
country, consisting of more than 13 thousand islands, Indonesia could benefit of such tunnels. The conventional transportation service between islands is made mainly by ferries
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
. Archimedes bridges (Terowongan Dasar Laut, in Indonesian) could thus be an alternative to connect adjacent islands, in addition to bridges.
Further reading
research papers- Strait Crossings 2001, by Jon Krokeborg. pages 511-590
videos
- Video explaining some of the concepts of an Archimedes bridge
- Italian television news covering the Quiandao Lake Project
- Another news coverage of the Sino-Italian project
companies