Niagara Tunnel Leaves Sandstone - Into the Breach!

As of September 9th 2009

The tunnel is 5404.2 meters (17,730 feet) long
Over-break is 3.5 meters (9.8 feet)
average 5-7 meters per day
elevation below surface 89 meters (294.5 feet)

The Invert Concrete Bridge is 2,000 meters (6,561.6 feet)

Holy Crap! I was wondering what would happen when they left Sandstone Paradise! Now the over-break is back to where it was, and they've slowed to a crawl again. From the picture, they are back to pasting over the over-break! Damn, I hate being right!

There is so much science in this tunnel, but nothing will be done. Everything we could have learned will be lost. The other day I ran into a 76 year old civil engineer, who used to be an expert on immersed tube tunnels. They don't do those any more, but here was the last of the much vaunted 'Canadian Expertise' in tunneling that ruled the world in the 70's. It was all treated as a trade secret, and died with the experts.

Now it is all forgotten, and they had to go with Austrian contractors, who don't know squat, compared with what the Canadians knew.