“Twenty years after its inauguration, the Channel Tunnel remains a prodigious industrial adventure. No less than 12,000 people took part in the construction of the longest underwater tunnel. The structure, which stretches over 50 kilometers, 38 of which are pierced under the sea, was consecrated last September as a "major civil engineering project of the last 100 years" by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers. "
Source: Le Figaro
The following activities will allow you to discover this long tunnel and learn more about the obstacles encountered during its construction under the sea.
Goals
At the end of the activities, the student will be able to:
- Compare different types of tunnels around the world;
- Name the reasons that require the construction of a tunnel;
- Name the number of trains and passengers using the tunnel daily;
- Explain the reasons which determined the location of the tunnel;
- Identify the type of soil needed to dig a tunnel under the sea.
Suggested Activities
ACTIVITY 1: Discover the Channel train
Start the activity by visiting Google maps in order to observe the two countries which are linked by the Eurotunnel under the Channel.
Continue by presenting this video behind the scenes of the Channel and which provides several pieces of information that the students will be invited to record on the following listening grid:
Click on the image to enlarge.
Download the file in PDF format (.pdf)
ACTIVITY 2: Stages of construction of the Eurotunnel
For this second activity, students will be invited to detail one aspect of the construction of the Eurotunnel.
Begin the activity by presenting this video describing the different stages of tunnel construction both in terms of its location and the type of soil required for increased strength.
Continue by informing the students that they are invited to make an informative animated film, with the site GoAnimate, which explains one of the aspects detailed in the video presented at the start of the activity.
Image source and help tutorial
Have students create an animation to explain the answer to one of the following questions:
Why was the tunnel built?
How did we choose its location?
Why was the layer of blue chalk drilled rather than the clay part?
How do trains travel under the tunnel?
How can trains be diverted from one tunnel to another?
How do you avoid collisions?
How is daily ventilation ensured and what is done in the event of a fire to prevent smoke from spreading?
Note that these question tracks can be enriched with your own questions. You could also let the students decide for themselves which aspects they want to include in their animation.
ACTIVITY 3: Large tunnels around the world
Suggest that the students make an infographic of a large tunnel. To do this, invite them to view the infographic of the Toulon tunnel and point out the type of information found there.
Group the students into small work teams to do the information research portion of a tunnel of their choice. Suggest that they use the list of longest tunnels in the world or the list of the longest tunnels by country.
Continue with the creation of an infographic, from the site infogr.am, data collected on the Internet. You could ask the students to include mandatory pieces of information such as the length of the tunnel of their choice, the duration of the works, their cost, the speed of construction per day, etc.
More about the magazine
The Channel Tunnel: a technical feat, a human adventure (selective bibliography)
National Library of France, July 2013
Channel Tunnel: 20 years later, more fear than harm
RTBF, May 3, 2014
20 years of the Channel Tunnel: hundreds of projects and two attempts in 1880 and 1975
The voice of the north, May 3, 2014
The Channel Tunnel celebrates its 20th anniversary
Le Point, May 3, 2014
Tunnel under the Manche
Seven wonders of the world