The railway tunnel and underground station are key parts of the CPK Airport plan and will help build vital rail connections across Poland. The procurement process will be divided into two segments, with up to five shortlisted participants in each. The winning contractor will be responsible for both the design and construction of the complete tunnel and station complex.

“Following the launch of the terminal tender, we’re moving forward with another major procurement – this time for the tunnel and railway station beneath the airport. We’re seeking a contractor with proven experience in large-scale tunnelling and infrastructure projects in Poland,” said Maciej Lasek, Government Plenipotentiary for CPK and Deputy Minister of Infrastructure.

The tunnel, stretching roughly six kilometres and encompassing a volume of 3.5 million cubic metres, will be among the largest of its kind in Poland. Its size will surpass both the Limanowa rail tunnel and the S3 road tunnels near Kamienna Góra. Running along an east–west alignment, it will accommodate railway lines 5, 85, and 88, providing direct connections to Warsaw in the east and Gdańsk, Katowice, and Łódź to the west.

“The tunnel is an integral part of high-speed line No. 85 linking the CPK Airport with Warsaw and Łódź. The station will form a fully integrated part of the terminal, enabling smooth and rapid transfers between rail and air,” said Dr Filip Czernicki, CEO of CPK.

The tender encompasses two primary lots:

• Part 1: design and construction of the eastern and central tunnel sections, including the station.
• Part 2: design and construction of the western section and junction area.

Each lot includes optional works for track systems and internal transport equipment (UTB) to support short-distance passenger and cargo movement.

“The CPK Airport Station and rail tunnel will feature a modern design and cutting-edge technologies, ensuring fast and convenient transfers for passengers,” added Piotr Rachwalski, CPK Management Board Member for Railway Investments. Bids will be assessed on price, methodology, and warranty terms, with contract awards anticipated in early 2027.

According to the current schedule, the underground station and tunnel should be ready by the end of 2032, alongside the launch of the high-speed rail link between Warsaw and Łódź. The remaining parts of the national “Y” network—from Łódź to Wrocław and Sieradz to Poznań—are expected to open by 2035.

The construction of Ryfast fixed link project started in 2012. The longest tunnel stretch measures around 14.3km and also reached a depth of 290m, which is a world record. Having said that, Norway is building another road tunnel that will be longer and deeper than this one. The Rogfast tunnel as it is called will be 25.5km in length and will reach a depth of 390m.

Both these projects, Ryfast and Rogfast are a part of the wider plan which is worth €150 billion and involves building tunnels and bridges along the Norway coast and looks out to replace the ferries that are currently being used.

Work under the £17m project included lowering and relaying track through the 330m-long tunnel and installation of equipment to allow electrification of the line.

With the completion of the works, all ScotRail passenger services will now resume normal service from today.

“Completion of the work at Winchburgh is a key milestone in the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme, which is a comprehensive programme of improvements to Scotland’s rail network.”

The completion of work will see a 20% reduction in journey time, as well as enable the rail network to carry 30% more passengers between Scotland’s two biggest cities.

Scotland Minister for Transport and Islands Derek Mackay said: “Completion of the work at Winchburgh is a key milestone in the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme, which is a comprehensive programme of improvements to Scotland’s rail network.”

In this project, additional staff were also deployed to stations along the route to help advise passengers affected by the project, which impacted mainly on services on the Glasgow-Falkirk High-Edinburgh and Dunblane/Stirling-Edinburgh lines.

ScotRail Alliance managing director Phil Verster said: “The on-time completion of a project of this size and complexity in just six weeks is a significant achievement for all of the engineers involved.

“It also demonstrates how, by working more closely together, the rail industry in Scotland can deliver vital enhancements to our network while also keeping passengers informed and on the move.”

“Electrifying the line between our two biggest cities will allow us to run faster, longer, greener trains that will cut journey times and increase the number of seats available on this key route.”

The refurbishment of Winchburgh Tunnel is part of the Scottish Government’s £742m Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) and is a major step towards the electrification of the main Edinburgh-Glasgow Queen Street line by 2016.

The new $4bn rail tunnel, which commenced work in 2005, runs almost 200ft below the Bosporus seabed and is claimed to be one of the biggest transport infrastructure projects in the world.

The new underwater railway tunnel will now allow trains to operate at intervals of two minutes and transport up to 75,000 passengers per hour, easing traffic congestion and environmental impact in the city.

Turkish transportation minister Binali Yildirim was quoted by National Post as saying that the tunnel has been designed to withstand a 9.0 magnitude earthquake.

Equipped with Siemens’ signaling and control technology, the tunnel mainline service has been automated with the installation of the European train control system (European Railway Traffic Management System) Level 1.

In addition, the rapid transit services for the new tunnel have been automated by Siemens with a radio-based automatic train control system (Trainguard Sirius), electronic interlockings (Trackguard Westrace) and the operations control system (Controlguide Rail 9000).

The systems will assist in monitoring the traffic, while controlling the interlockings and the infrastructure.

In order to accommodate long-distance passenger trains services, the tunnel will be expanded and by 2015 it will be the first standard-gauge rail link between Europe and Asia.

With an overall length of 76km, the line will reduce travel time between the cities of Gebze and Halkali to around one and a half hours.

Each of the tunnels has three lanes of traffic and are 7.47km long, tunnelled at depths of 65m under the river bed. They have two levels with three-lane traffic above and services and safety facilities below with additional space for a metro. The tunnels were constructed by the Shanghai Changjiang Tunnel & Bridge Construction and the Chinese partner Shanghai Tunnel Engineering (STEC).

The tunnelling was carried out using one of the largest S-317 Mixshield tunnel boring machines (TBM) ever built. The TBM for the first tunnel, one of two for the project, has a diameter of 15.43m, total length of 135m and a total weight of 2,300t. It was constructed by Herrenknecht after a contract awarded in spring 2005 and was handed over to begin operations at the end of April 2006. The TBM was constructed in four months at a site in Shanghai Wuhaogou (Pudong), 6km from the tunnelling site.

The construction of the second identical TBM (S-318) for the second tunnel was started in the middle of 2006. The main drives, providing cutterhead power of 3,500kW and weighing 170t each, were fabricated in Germany and transported to Shanghai by ship. The tunnel project will employ 1,500 construction workers and is expected to cost in excess of $1.5bn.

The project goal

Shanghai is a large industrial city and is short of space to accommodate the large number of workers resident in the city. The Chinese want to create one of their first eco cities in the middle of the Yangtze River Delta.

“The new city will incorporate every possible green technology to save energy and water.”

The new city, called Dongtan, has been designed by Arup and is being developed by the Shanghai Development Company. The initial phases are expected to be completed by 2010.

The new city will incorporate every possible green technology to save energy and water. There will be waste and heat recycling, water treatment and communal heating/hot water systems. The amount of car traffic will be carefully controlled and limited to the periphery of the city.

The new city will be constructed on the island of Chongming which will be connected to the Changxing river island (600,000 residents) with a bridge. In turn, Changxing Island will be connected to the Shanghai mainland at Pudong by the two new 7.47km tunnels.

Start of tunnelling

“The tunnel project employed 1,500 construction workers and is expected to cost in excess of $1.5bn.”

The tunnelling with the S-317 was started in a 26m-deep launch tunnel on 6 September 2006 from Shanghai and breakthrough to the island was finished in September 2008.

The S-318 TBM began parallel tunnelling on 8 December 2006, with a distance between tunnel centre lines of 23m, and was completed in 2009.

The Mixshield machines, working on hydroshield principle, were able to withstand water pressures of 6.5bar and excavated a mixture of sand, clay, broken rock and groundwater (206,033kN thrust and 39,945kNm torque).

The technology allows tools on the cutting wheel to be changed from within the shield at atmospheric pressure, with six cutting wheel arms accessible. These machines prevented hazardous diving operations.

The two machines installed a total of 7,500 lining segment rings for the two tunnels; each of the rings is made up of 11 segments, weighing up to 16t. The final interior diameter was 13.7m. The two tunnels required the disposal of 2.7 million cubic metres of earth by the time they were completed.

The proposed tunnel is designed to handle double-stacked containers and tall rail cars. When complete, it will improve the cross-border trade, while turning Windsor-Detroit into a major logistics hub. The project is being developed by a public-private coalition called the Continental Rail Gateway, which formed in 2010 and includes the Windsor Port Authority, Borealis Infrastructure Trust and Canadian Pacific.

The estimated cost of the project is $400m. The project partners will fund 50% of the project cost and the remaining 50% will come from government sources. Construction is expected to begin in 2014 as soon as the funding and regulatory approvals are secured. The project is expected to be complete by 2016, creating 2,200 direct and indirect jobs.

Need for replacement of Detroit-Windsor rail tunnel

The existing Detroit-Windsor rail tunnel is the first trench-and-tube tunnel constructed in the world. The 1.6-mile-long (2.57km) twin tunnel, which is neutral freight tunnel open to any carrier, connects southeast Michigan with southwest Ontario.

By handling around 400,000 freight cars a year, the tunnel ranks second in annual US-Canada rail freight value and third in US-NAFTA rail freight value.

The tunnel is still in good condition but it is only 6m high. It cannot accommodate double-stacked container rail cars (6.4m height) and the new generation multilevel taller rail cars. The tunnel was expanded in 1994 for higher clearance, but it cannot be expanded any further.

Container traffic from the Port of Montreal is expected to increase by more than 100% by 2020. Modern 9ft x 6in double-stacked container rail cars have emerged as the most efficient mode of freight carriage. Hence, a higher clearance replacement tunnel was deemed necessary at the Detroit-Windsor crossing.

Continental Rail Gateway project development

The replacement tunnel project was first mooted in 2000 by the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership, a joint initiative of Borealis Infrastructure Trust and Canadian Pacific. The original plan was to turn the existing tunnel into a cargo truck route, which was scrapped as a joint decision was taken by the US, Michigan and Canadian governments to build a new Detroit River bridge.

The Detroit River Tunnel Partnership spent around $100m on engineering. It also acquired 20 acres of land for the project from Detroit in 2007. The project could not kick-start due to funding problems.

In June 2010, the Windsor Port Authority joined the partnership to form the Continental Rail Gateway to develop, fund and build the project. In the same month, a detailed project description was filed with Transport Canada.

As of February 2013, the environmental assessment of the project was nearing completion, based on which key regulatory approval will be obtained. In the meanwhile, the coalition is engaged in securing funding from the US and Canadian governments.

New tunnel design details

The proposed high-clearance replacement rail tunnel will be built at the river depth of 49.2ft, which is about 30ft deeper than the tubes of the existing tunnel. The length of the new tunnel will be 2,845m, which is 700m longer than the existing tunnel. It will be 500m longer on the Canadian side and 200m longer on the Detroit side.

The internal diameter of the tunnel will be 8.4m with a lining thickness of 0.5m. The tunnel is designed to allow the operation of modern age double-stacked large container rail cars with an operating speed of 80kmph. Upon completion of the new tunnel, the existing tunnel can be used for passenger trains which will create a Quebec City-to-Chicago link.

Continental Rail Gateway project benefits

The Windsor-Detroit corridor, the busiest trade corridor of Canada, accounts for nearly 30% of the total Canada-US trade. By providing a high-clearance border connection between Canada and the US, the proposed tunnel will significantly improve trade between the two countries.

The project will better connect the mid-western markets of America with Canada’s key ports, such as the Port of Montreal, by adding freight capacity and efficiency. It will also lead to significant economic development of the Detroit-Windsor region by turning it to an intermodal freight hub.

On top of all, from an environmental point of view, Continental Rail Gateway will offer an ideal alternative to trade over highways.

The new Pajares Tunnel is a 24,667 meter long railway tunnel under construction in Spain. It will be on the AVE line from Valladolid to Gijón but could be used also by freight trains in the future.

The tunnel will cut the distance by rail between León and Oviedo by 33 km and enable the maximum speed to be raised to 300 km/h from the current average of 60 km/h.