Tunnel Design Trenchless Solutions
Tunnel design can vary greatly depending on the context or circumstances. When children are playing in the sand either on a sandy beach or in a sandpit in the back garden they invariably create interesting tunnel design. They love to dig tunnels of all shapes and sizes but one of the best ideas is a tunnel design adjoining two sandcastles on the beach in a grandiose style. This gives them a sense of engineering achievement and unbridled fun. They don’t need to draw or prepare a tunnel design as it is a natural progression for them in building their sandcastles, their moats and the secret underground tunnel connecting them. It is amazing to see the excitement on their faces as they eventually flood the tunnel from the surrounding moats filled with water.
The tunnel design was simple but the construction was a masterpiece designed by the children themselves. To construct the tunnel they dug out an area of sand ad joining both sandcastles and very cleverly inserted two small empty water bottles to form a roof support for the underground tunnel. They then covered the area with sand concealing the tunnel below.
The tunnel design was inspirational especially as it was totally spontaneous without the intervention of any adults. This clever tunnel design enabled the water to flow between both sandcastles mitigating the dangers of a tunnel collapse. They knowingly were using the same engineering principles as large,tunnel boring companies who build underground tunnels around the world. Intuition is a wonderful thing and certainly the children’s engineering endeavours in designing and building their tunnel was certainly intuitive. Escape from German prisoner of war camps during the Second World War was dependent on underground tunnel design. It was a dangerous activity and human lives were at stake when constructing the tunnels and using them for escape. It was quite an engineering feat given the circumstances and the simple tools they had to excavate the escape tunnels. At any point during the construction there was the continuous danger and fear of tunnel collapse leading to possible loss of life and discovery by the Germans of the operation. In this case the tunnel design had to be carefully planned and executed. The first major problem would have been digging a shaft down to the tunnel entrance from within the living quarters. Then there was the problematic danger of disposing of the excavated soil. This operation required courage as well as skill and man’s indomitable survival spirit and intuition are clear to be seen in the tunnel design of those escape tunnels that survive until today.
Tunnel design has been around for centuries and there are clear examples of this in many old castles throughout the UK and Ireland. In historically unstable political conditions,castles and other large family country homes always had escape tunnels. Those coastal castles, as part of their defences, always had tunnel design on their priority construction list as a form of escape in the event of an enemy attack. They generally led down to a beach from where a quick escape by boat could be made. Tunnel design was also a matter of life or death for the castle inhabitants who could often include royalty or the political elite.
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