Down the Channel, men in orange jackets and white hard hats walk one of the world’s longest underground highways and haul passenger trains long distances to keep them moving.
They serve a 50-kilometre (30-mile) service road linking France and Britain, retaining railway tracks in two adjacent tunnels that reach almost 100 meters below sea level at their deepest points.
It’s a unique universe between two countries following different driving conventions and time zones, says Eurotunnel maintenance supervisor Rémy Dezoumer.
“We drive on the left like in England, but the French keep to time,” he said Saturday night, switching on his hazard lights and honking his horn as he approached a parked car.
For safety reasons the service tunnel is kept at a higher air pressure than the surface environment, so workers must first transit through a chamber at intermediate pressure before they can drive into it.
None of their vehicles have number plates or right side mirrors to avoid hitting each other when they cross the road.
“We used to have Cleos,” Dezoomer said, referring to a small French-made hatchback similar in size to a VW Beetle.
“But now the vehicles are getting bigger and it’s getting trickier.”
U-turns are impossible between the towering walls of the tunnel, and everyone dreads having to deal with a flat tire so far from the base.
– Fast work –
Caution is key, DeZoomer said.
The speed limit is set at 50 kilometers per hour (30 mph) when the tunnel lights are off, but only 30 kilometers per hour when they are on, which usually indicates that a person is in the area. is in
Two nights a week, during the weekend, Eurotunnel at least partially closes one of the two train tunnels to perform maintenance, while carriages continue to carry passengers or goods on the other track.
Workers drive up and down in buses or in vehicles pulling trailers, and firemen make rounds.
Along the service tunnel every 375 metres, corridors lead to highly secure, heavy yellow doors that open onto the adjacent railway track.
Jeffrey Guy, one of the project managers, told AFP that on Saturday night alone, 160 workers were busy working at 66 different locations up and down the railway.
“It’s a normal night,” he said.
Most — some 70 people — were busy replacing rail sections as part of a three-year plan to refurbish the entire length of track.
Jean-Louis Merlin, who is in charge of that project, said his team had to work fast.
“Tonight, we have five hours and ten minutes to replace more than one kilometer of tracks,” he said.
– underwater border –
In the years since the tunnel opened in 1994, freight trains as well as lorries and cars carrying cars have been derailed.
“This is the fourth time we are replacing them since the start of operations,” Merlin said.
Miner lights lit on their white helmets, the crews would have to finish early before trains resumed running at dawn.
Some weld, while others connect the new rails to the railroad ties across the tracks.
In another part of the tunnel, workers in orange safety jackets pump resin into the sides of the tunnel to prevent water from seeping through.
“25,000 volts of water and overhead catenary don’t really mix,” said maintenance supervisor DeZoomer.
Elsewhere, workers blast a high-pressure hose to clean the wall, creating thick clouds of droplets in the dim golden light.
And halfway between the two countries they have their own tourist destination.
At the boundary below the sea, near a small sign reading “Midpoint”, some visitors have inscribed their names on the wall to leave a mark.
liu/ah/sjw/js
