{"id":2741,"date":"2018-10-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-30T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/?p=2741"},"modified":"2019-02-05T22:16:44","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T11:16:44","slug":"how-long-is-a-tunnel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/how-long-is-a-tunnel\/","title":{"rendered":"How long is a tunnel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a road passes through an enclosed area you could say it’s going through a tunnel, but what about if it’s under a short bridge or if there are windows on one side? A tunnel has a very specific definition in roading: it has to be at least 80m long. Tunnels 80-120m long are ‘short tunnels’ while tunnels longer than that are ‘long tunnels’. This means that when you pass under a motorway, even though it might be 40m, that’s an underpass, not a tunnel.<\/p>\n

However, there’s nothing to stop people or local authorities calling anything a ‘tunnel’ even if it’s less than 80m. Australia has a few long(ish) tunnels, e.g. the M5 which is 4km, but that pales into insignificance when you see tunnels from Scandinavia and Europe, the longest of which are more than 20km; in Europe, tunnels of 500m are considered long tunnels.<\/p>\n

Tunnel length is often considered in relation to the risks it poses to road users when passing through. The safest tunnels are single-direction tunnels where traffic flow is separated, but not all are like this.<\/p>\n

Tunnels are built as a shortcut through steep terrain or to allow buildings or other infrastructure to exist on top of them, e.g. the Tugun Bypass (M1)<\/a> where the extension to the Gold Coast airport runway creates a 334m tunnel.<\/p>\n

There’s an elevated risk of an accident near the beginning and end of tunnels<\/a>\u00a0so while a tunnel might be convenient, it’s not necessarily as safe as a regular road. Tunnels can be created using ‘cut and cover’. This means a cutting is made and then a roof is built on top. Of course, if the roof isn’t built, it remains as a cutting, not a tunnel. Tunnels can also be created by boring a hole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a road passes through an enclosed area you could say it’s going through a tunnel, but what about if it’s under a short bridge or if there are windows on one side? A tunnel has a very specific definition…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice"],"yoast_head":"\nHow long is a tunnel? - Driver Knowledge Test (DKT) Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/how-long-is-a-tunnel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How long is a tunnel? - Driver Knowledge Test (DKT) Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When a road passes through an enclosed area you could say it’s going through a tunnel, but what about if it’s under a short bridge or if there are windows on one side? A tunnel has a very specific definition…Read more ›\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/how-long-is-a-tunnel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Driver Knowledge Test (DKT) Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-30T19:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-05T11:16:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Awakino-tunnel.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1612\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"897\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darren Cottingham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darren Cottingham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/how-long-is-a-tunnel\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/how-long-is-a-tunnel\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darren Cottingham\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9ef16d1448c325b8672efd954b0d10cd\"},\"headline\":\"How long is a tunnel?\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-30T19:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-05T11:16:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/how-long-is-a-tunnel\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":314,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/how-long-is-a-tunnel\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/Awakino-tunnel.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Advice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/how-long-is-a-tunnel\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/how-long-is-a-tunnel\\\/\",\"name\":\"How long is a tunnel? 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