[Music] while we usually use roads to move people and pipes to move water sometimes nature presents us with a few obstacles and be it massive mountains large bodies of water or dense forests sometimes it's necessary to build super long tunnels to make travel more efficient stay tuned as i go through the top 15 longest tunnels on earth number 15 goddard base tunnel it goes without saying that the alps are cold high and generally hard to travel across however between the swiss towns of erstfeldt and bodillo lies a tunnel that makes the process just a little bit easier known as the goddard tunnel it runs for 57 kilometers and reaches a depth of 2300 meters making it the world's longest and deepest rail tunnel yet despite this the swiss travel system is able to move people through very quickly as trains reach speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour and travel through it in just 20 minutes the goddard base tunnel has been a welcome addition for travelers and given that's decreased travel time between zurich and milan by an hour it's certainly been pretty useful number fourteen chengdu metro line six while chengdu may not be a household name in the west it's one of china's most important cities and its population of over 8. 8 million people puts it roughly in line with chicago as the world's 40th biggest city so it makes perfect sense that it's home to the world's longest subway tunnel coming in at a length of 68. 2 kilometers it links the stations of the wong kong temple and longing making it one of the city's most important lines number 13 base tunnel at 57.
5 kilometers in length the mont dambin alpine base tunnel is a vital part of the 270 kilometer long lyon turin high-speed rail link lying at the heart of the trans-european rail network between the borders of france and italy once completed it will be the world's longest rail tunnel this tunnel made it onto the european commission list of 14 priority projects in 1994 crossing the alps between the sousa valley and piedmont and morian in savoir it's slated to cost an estimated 8 billion euros to build and construction first began back in 2019 however ever since there's been a lot of controversy as the project's been denounced by many residents of the 112 affected towns this has led to protests marches court appeals and even active militants surrounding calls to close the tunnel making its creation a massive pr problem despite this the project will likely be completed by about 2029 and to date it's gone full speed ahead number 12 snoqualmie tunnel at first glance the snoqualmie tunnel doesn't look like much after all its simple arched entrance way and relative small size makes it pretty unassuming and its location near the snoqualmie pass in washington state isn't exactly a household name yet it turns out that snoqualmie actually holds the record for being the world's longest bicycle and pedestrian tunnel coming in at a length of 3. 6 kilometers it was originally a train tunnel that helped connect america's west coast to the cities of chicago milwaukee and st paul while it served the line for almost 70 years it was abandoned in 1980 and rather than be converted much of the rail line was simply turned into the iron horse trail and while the snoqualmie tunnel is certainly unique it definitely requires some preparation to walk through as you not only need to layer up to avoid getting cold but also either have to use flashlights or headlamps so you can see where you're going however so long as you're prepared the snoqualmie tunnel is a lovely place to go for a stroll number 11 yamate tunnel tokyo is a massive city and with an area and population that's about double that of new york city it makes sense that it takes some pretty good urban planning to get everyone around and as far as transport goes i'd say that the yamate tunnel is easily one of tokyo's more impressive roads stretching between the coast and the center of the city it comes in at 18. 2 kilometers in length making it the world's longest inter-city car tunnel due to it being 30 meters below the surface the conditions on it are amazing in both rain and shine while its series of cameras phones escape hatches infrared sensors fire extinguishers foam sprayers and push button alarms make it one of the safest tunnel roads in the world if you ever get to go to tokyo it would definitely be worth taking a ride through this incredible tunnel number 10 yulian tunnel at first glance the yulion tunnel in south korea is pretty impressive stretching for a length of 50.
3 kilometers it opened in december of 2016 and is currently the world's fourth longest railway tunnel designed to allow trains to reach up to 300 kilometers per hour inside of it it's an extremely efficient route however in april of 2021 an audit exposed some serious flaws more specifically negligent geological surveying and unauthorized construction methods caused the track bed to deform which made the track so uneven that the trains were forced to slow down to as low as 90 kilometers per hour in some sections while repairs are currently being made the yulian tunnel probably isn't the safest tunnel to travel through right now number nine seikon tunnel the seikon tunnel is an undersea route that links japan's main island of honshu with the northern neighboring island of hokkaido and given its length of 52. 8 kilometers it's considered to be the world's longest tunnel with an undersea segment and the second longest tunnel in the world before the existence of the tunnel ferries provided transport between the two islands however after the toyomaro typhoon of 1954 sank five ferries and killed 1430 passengers a concerted investigation began into the feasibility of a tunnel that would run beneath the seabed to connect the two islands construction eventually began in 1964 and over the 24 years it took to build it caused a lot of controversy after all not only did the final cost come in at 12 times the original budget but events such as cave-ins floodings and other mishaps led to a total of 34 workers being killed during the construction process yet despite the heavy human toll the tunnel was finally completed in 1988 making it one of the most incredible and dangerous engineering feats of the 20th century however perhaps the strangest thing about the second tunnel was that despite all the effort put into making it the tunnel has limited use that's because passenger air travel between honshu and hokkaido is quicker and almost as cheap as rail travel through the tunnel itself making cargo transport the tunnel's main use this likely won't change anytime soon as despite the fact that japan's famous shinkansen bullet trains are used in the tunnel they can't go full speed while traveling due to the shock waves they create while moving as such odds are pretty good that you probably won't travel through seikon on your next japanese vacation number eight brokfast norway has a lot of super long fjords and while most are forced to take ferries in order to cross them rogfast will completely cut out this inconvenient part of people's journeys that's because rather than going on or above water the roguefest tunnel is set to go underneath it with the idea being that it will connect the cities of stavanger and hoaxen via a 27 kilometer long and 390 meter deep underwater tunnel this will make it the longest and deepest undersea tunnel in the world although in order to keep things safe special measures had to be implemented more specifically the plan is to have emergency exits at 250 meter intervals while a series of six ventilation shafts will split the duty of pumping in fresh air and pumping out polluted air the unfortunate thing about roguefest is that it likely won't open for a while that's because when it was originally set to be built between 2018 and 2026 the construction crews began to overspend to such a large extent that construction was completely halted in october of 2019 yet in november of 2020 the government finally settled on new construction plants and now the hope is that roguefest will be completed sometime in 2031. number seven payane water tunnel given its population of about 650 000 people the finnish capital of helsinki needs its fair share of fresh water and it's the pioneer water tunnel that allows this water to get into the city coming in at a length of 120 kilometers and a variable depth of between 30 to 100 meters it allows 10 cubic meters of water to flow through it per second and each year over 100 million cubic meters of water travels through the tunnel it's so long that it takes approximately nine days for water to flow from end to end with the water moving entirely thanks to gravity once it reaches its end point the tunnel not only provides clean drinking water to over a million fins but also aids in electricity production as it supplies the kaliomati power plant which generates between six to seven gigawatt hours of electricity to their grid despite taking 10 years and costing approximately 200 million euros to build i think the tunnel was probably well worth it number six line three china's port city of guangzhou is home to nearly 15 million people and so in order to make sure that the people can get around both efficiently and effectively china built the extremely long line three of the guangzhou metro coming in at 65.
4 kilometers in length it's considered to be the world's second longest continuous subway tunnel and the world's longest rail tunnel of any kind as you might expect of the nine guangzhou metro lines that are currently in operation line three is one of the most overcrowded as it carries more than a million passengers every single day given its connections to the central business district bayoun international airport guangzhou east railway station and the tianhe coach terminal it is the city's most vital transportation link as it's connected to most major transportation hubs in the area so if you forget to visit guangzhou chances are you'll find yourself on line three at one point or another number five delaware aqueduct when it comes to length nothing quite beats the delaware aqueduct as its life of 137 kilometers makes it the longest continuous tunnel in the world carrying approximately half of new york city's water supply it's part of a system that taps water resources from both the delaware river and streams in the catskill mountains mounting to a total flow of nearly 5 billion liters of water per day running deep into the bedrock the concrete-lined aqueduct was constructed by drilling and blasting and while it worked well when it was first constructed in 1953 by 2013 two significant leaks were causing the aging tunnel to lose an estimated 76 million liters of water per day as such in 2013 construction began on the delaware aqueduct bypass tunnel built in order to repair the delaware aqueduct it will likely cost about one and a half billion dollars to build making it one of the largest and most complicated infrastructure projects in new york history however once it's built all of the effort will have certainly been worth it number four lairdale tunnel you've probably driven under a tunnel that made your car radio cut out for a few seconds but if you were to drive through the laerdal tunnel the radio silence would last for a little longer than normal that's because the tunnel holds the record for being the longest road tunnel in the world at a massive 24. 5 kilometers in length now norway is a country that's notoriously difficult to road trip in due to its high mountains narrow roads and expansive fjords for a while the situation was so bad that in order to get between the capital of oslo and the second biggest city of bergen drivers had to use ferry connections and traverse difficult mountain crossings so the government of norway decided to build a highway between the two cities that solved this problem by blasting through a nearby mountain in order to make a more direct route construction began in 1995 and was completed in 2000 at a cost of 113 million dollars and the tunnel stands apart for more than just its length that's because it's forward-thinking design and innovative safety features truly are a marvel of human engineering design wise there are fears that drivers would lose focus if the 20-minute drive was monotonous so in order to account for this the government recruited a team of psychologists to adjust the tunnel's lighting levels and design gentle curves and short straight sections to make driving through the tunnel more interesting while still maintaining a safe viewing distance of a thousand meters or more at all times safety wise the tunnel has no emergency exits but makes up for this by having emergency services phones every 250 meters and fire extinguishers every 125 meters whenever any of these are used the tunnel will light up with signs telling vehicles to turn around and in order to ensure that vehicles can get out safely there are a total of 15 large turning areas that have been constructed for buses and semi trailers to top this off there's even special wiring for the use of radio and mobile phones and a high-quality air filtration system to make travel safe as possible driving through this massive tunnel truly must be an incredible experience number three channel tunnel historically the english channel has protected england from invading french and german armies yet by the latter half of the 20th century these long-time enemies were instead long-time allies so in 1994 the english decided to open up a tunnel between the english town of folkston and the french city of calais while the entire tunnel comes in at an astounding 50. 4 kilometers in length the underwater section alone is a massive 37.
9 kilometers long making it the world's longest underwater tunnel now rather than drive travelers are connected to the two countries via rail however the options are quite varied that's because the tunnel has high-speed eurostar passenger trains a euro tunnel shuttle for road vehicles and international freight trains if you choose to travel via the first option you will sit on a high speed train that can make the full trip between the cities in about 90 minutes if you'd rather use your vehicle you can hop on the euro tunnel shuttle which essentially acts as a car conveyor belt and transport you and your vehicle through the channel in just 35 minutes and of course if you want to transport freight you can always load up your goods aboard the tunnel's freight trains as a result of all this the channel tunnel is one of europe's most important pieces of infrastructure and when you further consider that pre-brexit it facilitated about 20 and a half million passengers and 22 and a half million tons of freight per year it's not hard to see why both france and england were eager to have it built [Music] number 2 smart tunnel malaysia is known for its super destructive monsoon season and in order to manage it it makes use of its super high tech smart or storm water management and road tunnel built in order to solve the problem of flash floods in the capital city of kuala lumpur tunnel is the longest in malaysia coming in at a length of 9. 7 kilometers now what's interesting about it is that it operates in three ways during times where there's low rainfall and no storms the tunnel serves as a traffic relieving road tunnel when there are mild to moderate floods the lower level of this two-tiered tunnel will fill with rain water allowing the upper level to remain open however when floods get extremely bad the tunnel closes to all traffic and allows flood water to completely flow through as a result this tunnel's dual purpose as a flood reliever and transport route makes it an incredibly useful piece of infrastructure number one the large hadron collider while you will most definitely never get the chance to travel through the large hadron collider in all honesty it's probably for the best that's because this 27 kilometer long tunnel is part of the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator built by the european organization for nuclear research between 1998 and 2008 the collider allows scientists to perform complex scientific experiments more specifically the accelerator facilitates two high-energy particle beams that travel at close to the speed of light before colliding with each other they do so in what is essentially a massive vacuum and they're guided around the accelerator ring by strong magnetic fields created by super strong electromagnetic coils the accelerator is maintained at temperatures of as low as negative 271.
