Tunnels

We are on our way from Lake Maggiore to Tirano (yes we’re still in Italy, at least until this afternoon).

As we travel parallel to the lake, it is clear that infrastructure design is different here to back in NZ. 

Back home, as we drive through hilly areas or along coastal roads, we simply follow the contour of the terrain. The result is joy for those of us prone to motion sickness. Up, down, incessantly winding roads. 

While this way is very picturesque, it takes a while. It takes even longer when regular rockslides block the road. I haven’t heard of anyone being killed, or major vehicles damaged caused by stray boulders. Lucky. 

Not so lucky with the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. Collapsed roads and landslides shut the main arterial highway, State Highway 1, for 13 months!!

As an aside, I think we have delusions of grandeur. We have 99 State Highways. Seriously? Yup.

The reality is, we have one. State Highway 1. Top to bottom. All the rest are tributaries. Local roads. To be fair, many parts of SH1 are local roads, running through small towns. 

If you’re looking for a main highway that takes you in a straight line, avoiding those pesky towns, come to Europe.  You won’t find it in NZ.

On this side of the planet, the engineers seem to prefer the direct route over the scenic route. 

I’ve already mentioned the multiple viaducts and occasional tunnels in Portugal. Well, the mountains are much higher here, so they have done the reverse. 

We traveled the length of Lake Maggiore. And are now driving alongside Lake Como, but if you blink you miss them. 

Tunnel after tunnel, drilled straight through each hill. Tunnels are anything from a few metres to what appears to be thousands of metres. You emerge for no more than 3 seconds, and then plunge into the next one. A glimpse of water and then gone. 

I’m pretty sure that they use 2 different ways to make these tunnels. There’s the obvious long ones, which are … well… tunneled. With a big-arsed drill. Most of them have curved sides, hinting at the circular hole. 

Other ones, I don’t think they do that. Not only are they very short, they are only a few metres below the ridge line. I’d just dig it out and backfill over the built road and cover. 

We saw this as we came down into Italy a lot. While the road did follow the terrain, they had built a ceiling over the road, and a ventilated wall on the outward side. Windows. 

To me, these tunnels, whether open sided, dug out or, … you know… tunneled, they all have one advantage over the kiwi way. Protection from falling stuff. Less chance of a landslide closing the road. 

The other advantage is obviously speed of getting somewhere. Remember, these are the motorways, the highways. Point A to point B. If you want to see Maggiore or Como, turn off the highway and follow the coastline. If you want to get somewhere else, be satisfied with 3-seconds glimpses between tunnels.