The Tyne Tunnel is a two-lane toll vehicular tunnel under the River Tyne, England, completed in 1967, and connecting Jarrow on the south side of the river with Howdon on the north. The tunnel is one of three forming the Tyne Tunnel project; less well known are the pedestrian and cyclists' tunnels opened in 1951. The tunnels are some 11 kilometres downstream and to the east of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

The Tyne Tunnel project

A scheme for the construction of a set of three tunnels under the Tyne was put forward by the Durham and Northumberland County 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. Post war 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 Tunnel

Tyne Cyclist and Pedestrian Tunnel runs under the River Tyne between Howdon and Jarrow, and was opened in 1951. It actually consists of two tunnels running in parallel, one for pedestrian use with a 10'6" (3.2m) diameter, and a wider 12' (3.66m) diameter tunnel for pedal cyclists. The tunnels are 900ft (274.5m) in length, and lie at 40ft (12.3m) below the river bed.

At each end, the tunnels are connected to surface buildings by escalators and lifts. The Waygood-Otis escalators have wooden steps, and are the original models from 1951. At the time of construction, they were the longest single-rise escalators in the world, with a vertical rise of 85ft (25.9m) and a length of approximately 200ft (61m). (More recently an escalator with a longer vertical rise of 90ft (27.4m), 197ft (60m) in length was constructed in Angel underground station in London).

The Tyne Vehicular tunnel

The vehicular tunnel is 5,500ft (1.68 km) long and has a diameter of 31'3" (9.5m) with a roadbed 24' (7.3m) wide. It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on the 19th 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.

Proposed new Tyne Tunnel

Current utilisation of the tunnel is 34,000 vehicles per day and forecast to rise to 43,000 per day by 2021. As at March 2004, the Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive (TWPTE) is leading a scheme to build a second, £139 million tunnel. The tunnel would be slightly to the west of the existing tunnel, and the pair would allow each tunnel to serve two lanes of traffic each travelling in the same direction; the current tunnel has two single lanes of traffic in opposing directions, representing an avoidable risk.

The TWPTE proposal is to let a Private Finance Initiative 30 year design build finance operate contract, and to raise tolls from £1 to circa £1.50. The scheme has passed a public enquiry stage, held in May 2003, and go-ahead now hinges on the results of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's comprehensive spending review, and 10-year transport spending plan, both anticipated in July 2004. Despite the lack of final clearance, TWPTE has published an initial Invitation to Tender.

Reference

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