The Mersey (Birkenhead Tunnel)

[BillyNoMates]

I went through this today - to the Wirral and back. I just wondered why they didn't just build a straight, level tunnel ?

It bends and goes up and down - seems a little odd to me.

[Piper-AK]

It has to go up and down, at least at the start and finish. As for bending, maybe they decided to take the scenic route?

[SteveD]

Probably because they area they dug through is made up of areas of rock and areas of clay. Here is a history of the tunnels:

http://www.tunnelusers.org.uk/history.htm

[Lore]

Or maybe they started either end and took some time finding each other in the middle!! (I'm from the wirral and I know we were digging in a straight line!!) :oP - just kidding!
what I want to know is... You can go straight through from Birkenhead to Liverpool or you can take a left and come out via the dock area, just before that left turn is another fork which doubles back on itself .. where does that go to?

[jrtv]

The tunnel was built mainly by the Irish who would work for about 1 hour then stop for a Guiness then work another hour then stop for another Guiness, this went on all day until they couldn't walk in a straight line so the tunnel looked ok to them !!

[breddan]

There are two tunnels under the Mersey.
The Kingsway tunnel connecting Wallasey and Liverpool.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsway_Tunnel
This is straight but obviously dips to go under the river.

The other tunnel, which was the first to be built, is the Queensway tunnel which connects Birkenhead and Liverpool.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensway_Tunnel
This bends because at the time it was built it was incorrectly thought that a straight tunnel would cause problems with wind blowing through it.