Worlds deepest immersed tunnel in South Korea

The Busan-Geoje Fixed Link Project is a major infrastructure development in South Korea. The link will provide easy access between Busan – Korea’s southernmost, second largest city – and the island of Geoje. The current journey to the island takes over three and a half hours driving time over an out of the way route of over 140km or involves using the ferry; the new link will cut the journey time to approximately one hour (60km).

Construction originally started in 2004 and is well under way with the first 45,000 tonnes by 180m long element successfully placed. Of this 8.2km, four-lane fixed link, there will be 4km of immersed tunnel and two 2km cable-stayed bridges. It will be the world’s deepest immersed roadway tunnel at 48m below mean water level and the world’s second longest immersed concrete tunnel.

The project consists of three construction phases:
Phase 1: links Geoje Island and Jeo Island and includes a cable-stayed bridge, approach bridges, and a bored tunnel section
Phase 2: links Jeo Island and Jungjuk Island and includes a cable-stayed bridge and approach bridge section
Phase 3: links Jungjuk Island and Gadeok Island and includes immersed and bored tunnel sections

The fixed link project is being implemented along the lines of the privately-financed BOT (build, operate, transfer) model. This is become increasingly common in major fixed-link infrastructure construction projects.

The project is a public private partnership with 72% private and 28% government funding and a 40 year concession period. The link is scheduled to open to traffic before the end of 2010.


source:http://www.ice.org.uk (retrieved April 6, 2008)