The Mount Victoria Tunnel in the New Zealand capital city of Wellington is 623 metres (slightly more than a third of a mile) long and 5 metres (16.4ft) in height, connecting Hataitai to the centre of Wellington and the suburb of Mount Victoria, under the mount of the same name. It is part of State Highway 1.
History
The tunnel was built in 15 months by the Hansford and Mills Construction Company. The project cost around £132,000 and greatly reduced travel time between the Eastern Suburbs and the central business district of Wellington.
Construction employed a standard tunnel-excavation technique in which two teams of diggers begin on either side of the obstacle to be tunnelled through, eventually meeting in the centre.
The initial breakthrough, when the two separate teams of diggers met, occurred at 2.30pm on 31 May 1930, and the first people to pass through the breakthrough were tunnellers Philip Gilbert and Alfred Graham. The tunnel was opened officially by the mayor of Wellington, Thomas Hislop, on 12 October 1931.
Takarunga / Mount Victoria is the highest volcano on Auckland's North Shore, rising to 87m. Its age is currently unknown. Its lava flows now line much of Devonport's waterfront. An important pa once occupied its slopes, and some of the pa's earthworks can still be seen. A scoria mound known as Duders Hill, on Takarunga / Mount Victoria's southern slopes was mostly quarried away. The name Mount Victoria comes from Queen Victoria and the name Takarunga means "the hill standing above". Jules Dumont d'Urville climbed the hill in 1827.
The hill provides panoramic views of Auckland's Waitemata Harbour and the inner Hauraki Gulf. Over the years the peak and upper slopes have housed a signal station for shipping, artillery emplacements, farmland, and various concrete army bunkers, some from as early as the 1870s. One bunker now serves as the venue for the Devonport Folk Music Club.
The slopes of Takarunga / Mount Victoria are also home to Devonport Primary School, Takarunga Playcentre, a tennis court, a cemetery, a water reservoir which maintains supply to the area, and a scenic lookout. The old Signalman's House is now home to the Michael King Writers Centre which provides writers-in-residence programmes, hosting for visiting writers, residential workshops for experienced writers, and a series of workshops for young poets and emerging writers. The writer-in-residence programmes are supported by Creative New Zealand and the University of Auckland.
The Victoria Tunnel in Liverpool, England is a 2,706yd (2,474m) long rail tunnel. Opened in 1849, its eastern portal is adjacent to Edge Hill station. The western portal opens into a short (69yd or 63m) cutting, between Byrom Street and Fontenoy Street, the shorter Waterloo Tunnel exits the cutting terminating at Waterloo Dock. The Victoria and Waterloo tunnels are effectively one long tunnel connected by a ventilation cutting. The whole length is generally known as the Waterloo Tunnel.
Constructing the tunnel
The city of Liverpool is built on an escarpment. Edge Hill stands on the ridge to the east of the city. The escarpment falls down to the River Mersey. The Victoria Tunnel followed a western course downwards on a falling gradient of 1:57 to the river. The lowest point is at the Byrom Street cutting. The tunnel continues towards the Waterloo Dock with the much shorter Waterloo Tunnel. The tunnel rises upwards from this point with rising gradients of 1:513 for 251yd (230m), 1:139 for 400yd (370m) and finally 1:86 for 217yd (198m) to the western Waterloo Dock portal.
The Victoria Tunnel is a subterranean wagonway that runs under Newcastle upon Tyne, England, from the Town Moor down to the River Tyne. It was built between 1839-42 to transport coal from Leazes Main Colliery in Spital Tongues to riverside staithes (jetties) ready for loading onto boats for export.
The tunnel was driven through boulder clay and formed by a base course of stone supporting a brick arch. Loaded wagons descended the incline of the tunnel under their own weight, and were rope-hauled back to the colliery by a stationary engine. The Colliery closed in January 1860 and the Tunnel was abandoned until the start of the Second World War when it was converted for use as an air raid shelter.
The tunnel is 2.4 miles (3.9km) in length with a maximum depth of 85 feet (26m) and drops 222 feet (68m) from entrance to exit. It remains largely intact.
History
Victorian wagonway
When it opened in 1835, the Leazes Main or Spital Tongues colliery was one of many coal mines around Newcastle. The Industrial Revolution was in full swing: demand for coal was high and the competition was great.
The first new tunnel would run under MountVictoria, at 0.7 km long, parallel to the existing tunnel, and the second would run parallel to the existing TerraceTunnel, measuring 0.5 km.
The reply was a firm, “No, I wouldn’t. You can’t tell Roger what to do.” ... It is a familiar sight that greets travellers as they drive through MountVictoria tunnel from the airport, jutting sharply upright among Wellington’s white villas and bungalows.
Transport experts are backing an idea to toll the government's second MountVictoriaTunnel... It also committed to upgrading roads around the Basin Reserve and building the second Mount Victoria Tunnel.
The incident occurred around 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) into the mine located on the edge of suburban MountClear with tunnels and shafts stretching below houses.
The prime minister said yesterday a second Mt Vic tunnel build may well be put through the new regime. Shane Jones told Morning Report the tunnel was promised during the election campaign and no one should be surprised if consenting was fast-tracked.
In 2017, Genter put her name forward for the MountAlbert by-election, but she came in second after Jacinda Ardern...National had accused her of convincing Twyford to push back construction a second Mount Victoria tunnel for at least a decade ... ....
Let’s Get WellingtonMoving (LGWM) was a $7.4 billion (US$4.6 billion) campaign that championed large-scale transit initiatives like a second tunnel at MountVictoria, ...
In relation to the Kāinga Ora review announced today, Luxon said ...Trip to Sydney ... The latest project to go is Let's Get WellingtonMoving, with the new government instead opting to fund a second MountVictoria tunnel and upgrade the Basin Reserve ... ....
It was also announced the government would fund a second MountVictoria tunnel and upgrade the Basin Reserve... Whanau said she still opposed a second Mount Victoria tunnel - and had let the government know.
"We'll have a mini, mini, mini Budget in our three weeks in government ... Just yesterday, the government announced that Let's Get WellingtonMoving was scrapped and that it would fund a second MountVictoria tunnel and upgrade the Basin Reserve instead.
A record number of Indian-origin candidates are standing in this year's general election from across the political spectrum ...ACT ... National ... "I will also work towards getting the second MountVictoria tunnel built to shorten journey times." ... Labour ... Green.
