Perthustunnel

The Perthustunnel is a 8.3 km long railway tunnel in the high-speed line Perpignan - Figueres, between France and Spain. It crosses the foothills of the Pyrenees at Le Perthus bears her name. The northern tunnel mouth is located on the territory of the municipality Montesquieu -des- Albères, the southern in the area of La Junquera.

The tunnel structure consists of two tubes, each receiving a track. The tubes are all 200 meters connected by cross-links, in total there are 41 connecting tunnels. The eastern tunnel tube measures a length of 8.325m. Your north portal is at km 17.184 of the high-speed line. The western tunnel has a length of 8,316 m. The north portal is at km 17.179 of the high-speed line.

The tubes were built with tunnel boring machines from Herrenknecht. The two machines with a diameter of 9.9 meters from the Spanish side worked their way northward. In August and October 2005, the work began. The two tubes have been broken through in October and November 2007. They go through layers of granite, gneiss, granodiorite and schist. The tunnel went in December 2010.