Tyne Tunnel - Second Tyne Vehicle Tunnel

Second Tyne Vehicle Tunnel

Tunnel usage is forecast to rise to 43,000 per day by 2021. In March 2004 the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority launched a scheme to build a second, £139 million tunnel. The tunnel is slightly to the east of the existing tunnel, and the pair will allow each tunnel to serve two lanes of traffic, each travelling in the same direction; the original tunnel had two single lanes of traffic in opposing directions, representing an avoidable risk. The UK Government gave the go-ahead for the scheme in July 2005. Construction work started in Spring 2008, with the new tunnel opening to two-lane bi-directional traffic in February 2011, at which point the original tunnel closed for a ten month refurbishment.

The timeline for the new Tyne Tunnel was as follows:

• Transfer tunnels and staff to concessionaire: 1 February 2008
• Main work starts: Spring 2008
• New tunnel opens: end of February 2011
• Existing tunnel closes for refurbishment: end of February 2011
• Both existing and new tunnel fully operational and open: end of November 2011. Originally this was planned for January 2012, however both refurbishment of the old tunnel was completed earlier than expected and both tunnels were open by lunchtime on 21 November 2011.

The tunnel was constructed under a Private Finance Initiative 30 year design build finance operate contract by Bouygues Construction.

On-shore sections of the new tunnel were built using the cut-and-cover method. Under-river sections of the tunnel were prefabricated, floated into position, immersed into a dredged trench, and covered with rocks. By beginning of November 2009, the land approaches to the tunnel had been excavated, and construction of the tunnel, in four 300-foot (90 m) long sections, had been completed nearby. The dredger used to excavate the river section of the tunnel cutting arrived on site on 4 November 2009 to excavate 400,000 cubic metres of sediment, which was used to infill the defunct Tyne Dock, reclaiming 13 acres (53,000 m2) of land for use by Port of Tyne. Both ends of the tunnel finally met on 26 May 2010.