Tyne Tunnel

Tyne Tunnel northern entrance before refurbishment

Interior of cycle and pedestrian tunnel showing the two tubes in parallel

The Tyne Tunnel is the name given to two dual-lane vehicular toll tunnels under the River Tyne linking the counties of Durham and Northumberland. Completed in 1967 and 2011 respectively, they connect the town of Jarrow on the south bank of the river with North Shields and Howdon on the northern end. The original tunnel was one of three forming the original Tyne Tunnel Project; the others are the pedestrian and cyclist tunnels opened in 1951. The tunnels are seven miles downstream and to the east of Newcastle upon Tyne and form part of the A19 road.

History

A scheme for the construction of a set of three tunnels under the Tyne was put forward by the Durham and Northumberland councils in 1937. After prolonged negotiations with the Ministry of Transport, the scheme was approved in 1943. The Tyne Tunnel Act, the legislative instrument necessary to enable the construction of the tunnels, received Royal Assent in 1946. Postwar restrictions on capital expenditure delayed the construction of the vehicular tunnel, but work started on the smaller tunnels for pedestrians and cyclists in 1947.

Tyne cyclist and pedestrian tunnels

The Tyne Cyclist and Pedestrian Tunnel was Britain's first purpose-built cycling tunnel. It runs under the River Tyne between Howdon and Jarrow, and was opened in 1951, heralded as a contribution to the Festival of Britain. The original cost was £833,000 and the tunnel was used by 20,000 people a day. It actually consists of two tunnels running in parallel, one for pedestrian use with a 10 ft 6 in diameter, and a larger 12-ft-diameter tunnel for pedal cyclists. Both tunnels are 900 ft in length, and lie 40 ft below the river bed. The tunnels are over 60 years old and are Grade II listed buildings.

At each end, the tunnels are connected to surface buildings by two escalators and a lift. The Waygood-Otis escalators have 306 wooden steps each, and are the original models from 1951. At the time of construction, they were the highest single-rise escalators in the UK, with a vertical rise of 85 ft and a length of 197 ft. In 1992 escalators with a higher vertical rise of 90 ft and 200 ft in length were constructed at Angel station on the London Underground. The Tyne Tunnel escalators remain the longest wooden escalators in the world.

In a refitting phase the escalators and lift shafts were due to be upgraded by October 2010 to early 2011 at a cost of £500,000. A £6,000,000 refurbishment was due to take place in 2011.

20,000 people a month use the pedestrian tunnel.

In 2005, The SoundEx filmed a music video to their song Street Freak in the tunnel. The band were permitted to close the cyclist tunnel for two days and use it free of charge to bring the tunnel publicity.

In 2012, contractor GB Building Solutions of Balliol Business Park, Newcastle, was appointed to carry out the £4.9 million refurbishment which included the replacement of two of the original four escalators with inclined lifts and the replacement of the tunnels' ageing mechanical and electrical systems.

The two remaining escalators, which are original and of historical significance, will be opened up to public view and illuminated with feature lighting.

New lighting, CCTV, control and communications systems will also be installed, in addition to carrying out repairs to the tunnel structure itself and to the historic finishes within the tunnel such as the tiling and panelling. The concrete floor sections are also to be refurbished or replaced.

Vehicle tunnels

First Tyne motor vehicle tunnel

The vehicle tunnel is a mile long and has a diameter of 31 ft 3 in with a roadbed of 24 ft. It was built by Edmund Nuttall Limited and was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 19 October 1967, but commenced operational use only in 1968, on completion of the northern link roads. It was designed to handle 25,000 vehicles per day. The original toll for cars was 2s 6d.

Second Tyne motor 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 pairing allows 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 on 25 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.

Onshore 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 295-ft 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 14 million cubic feet of sediment, which was used to infill the defunct Tyne Dock, reclaiming 13 acres of land for use by Port of Tyne. Both ends of the tunnel finally met on 26 May 2010.

Tolls

As of 2016, the toll charge for cars is £1.70; vans, trucks, and buses, £3.30. Motorcycles use the tunnel free. A 10% discount is available to Tyne Tunnel permit holders. The permits are passive electronic discs stuck to the inside of the vehicle's windscreen, which are electronically read by the toll booth's scanner, whereupon the toll is debited from the permit-holder's account.

Tunnel is free for blue badge holders.

References

• New Civil Engineer - 25 March 2004, pp. 10 & 12.

Outside links

• Location map: 54°59’16"N, 1°29’8"W
• TT2 operating and maintaining all four Tyne Tunnels
• Tyne Pedestrian and Cyclist Tunnels
• New Tyne Crossing
• BBC News