There’s a tunnel being built (actually almost complete) in the Faroe Islands that will have a three way intersection in the middle. It connects two parts of one island with a second island. The intersection is under the fjord in the first island.
I can’t recall any other tunnel with an intersection in it. Googling did not help, except to find intersections in cat tunnels. I’m sure there must be others. Anyone know where they are?
Note: I’m not interested in intersections in underpasses. It has to be in a tunnel dug out of rock or a floating tunnel.
All twin tunnels - rail or car - have crossover escape routes variously along he way - but that is of course a trite answer, not what you are looking for. I don’t know off hand of any of these crossovers are for traffic, or just emergency use for pedestrians.
The linked Wiki article says that the paths meet in a roundabout, which is not quite as frightening as “intersection” had led my imagination to fear - but still pretty scary even so.
I’d be very curious to see the plans and schematics for this roundabout. Or maybe not
Roundabouts are intersections, too. Looks like they also have them in Norway and Monaco according to other posts. But yeah, I think I know what you mean. A stop sign or traffic light controlled underground intersection would be a bit scary.
There are quite a few with roundabouts and entry/exit ramps underground. We went through this one last year: incredible and beautiful!
The downside of more & more tunnels is that they are costly to travel through (automatic tolls), and the government has cut support to ferry services to push travellers into the tunnels. And though the tunnels are spectacular, they’re not as gorgeous as the scenery seen from the ferry!
Tunnel intersections are extremely common in underground mining. And them being roundabouts must be pretty uncommon given the economics of mining (i.e. cutting fancy roundabouts that will stay safe deep underground would be much more expensive than alternatives for traffic control). I’ve never heard of any, I must say.
Every underground mine I’ve ever been in used traffic light systems.
Here is another one in Norway. I have also driven through the one that was postes earlier in the thread a few times. It is a bit strange the first time you see one, but as long as it is properly lit, it doesn’t really make a difference if it is underground or not.
Why would either a roundabout or a light-controlled crossroads l be particularly scary? Granted, there’s no accounting for the idiocy of other drivers, but that applies just as much to any other part of the road.
Wild guess: Accidents in tunnels have the potential to be a much bigger problem than outside a tunnel. Fires in particular are bad, but other accidents are also bigger problem in a tunnel than on most other. And crossroads have a much higher frequency of accidents than … a-good-word-for-a-stretch-of-road-without-intersections.
That’s right, accidents. And accidents in crossroad intersections have a much higher chance of being T-bone accidents (the worst kind) while roundabout accidents are more likely to be sideswipes and other less dangerous types.
