Flat country tunnels

I caught a bus from the Bussijam in Tallinn to Parnu.

2017-07-17 16.45.40

The bus travelled through the more modern parts of Tallinn past lots of lovely houses. Many of the pictures I took from the moving bus don’t do them justice so I haven’t included them here.

On leaving the city, the countryside was inviting and spacious.

So imagine my surprise when we drove past roadworks which appear to be placing tunnels into the road.

I may have to return to Estonia next year to find out what is going over the top of these tunnels along the E67!

For daily pictures you can follow me on tumblr. at www.traveltash.tumblr.com, like the Travel-Tales page on Facebook at  www.facebook.com/traveltalesorg  and follow me on Twitter @tash_higman.

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1 Comment

  1. Natasha, as you know, I was the team leader for the design of the M5 motorway through North Somerset. The more southern section of which crosses the Levels. The is below high tide level, and was therefore designed with culverts over the main watercourses. Because of the tide-locked outflow to the sea, we had to get a large volume through these culverts so as to empty Somerset while the tide was low (and it was close to the point of the highest tides in the world – Portishead) Because of the flatness of the land there was little slope to get the water moving. So we built corrugated steel culverts which looked very much like your photograph. At the time (1970) these were the largest Armco tunnels in the world. They were intended to be laid with a slightly arched alignment, so as the embankment settled, they would deflect into a level, and perhaps a sagging alignment. However when it came to building them, the builders could not bend the pipe into the hogging shape which we had specified, even with 2 large bulldozers in each end! As you know it all worked out okay and none of this part ever flooded, even when the famous Somerset floods closed the next section of the Motorway (not designed by us).

    I suspect that what you saw may well have been for flood relief for a large area of land, under a future highway development?

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