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Underground (Miscellaneous: Tunnels, Roads, Bunkers Etc.)

A cave system under Plymouth Hoe which I never knew about - although I must have sailed past the entrance to it many times!
Incredible video shows hidden cave system on the Hoe that's a lot bigger than you think
By Plymouth Herald | Posted: May 14, 2017
Video: 5m 16s.

This incredible video shows a hidden cave system normally flooded by water - not far from a popular cafe.
The inside of the caves, known as Underhill, are part of the Hoe Foreshore and were caught on camera by regular freediver and video editing enthusiast Spyke O'Hanlin.

Spyke, from Plymouth, runs a YouTube channel called Plymouth GoPro Heroes and describes the caves as being "just down from the Terrace Cafe".
He said: "We go in there at high tide all the time but for this video I take the viewers in there at low tide and get a decent look at it. You won't believe how big it is!"

Spyke works as a promoter for Club Envy for his day job and says he started producing the videos because hardly anyone knows caves like this exist.
He added: "I'm Plymouth born, been here forever. I've done different things since I've been around. I'm a promoter for Club Envy, I organise community groups and events, most recent was Pokemon Go Southwest Trainers, it became the biggest local group in the country.
"But while doing all this I found video editing and filmmaking in 2011 and fell in love. So much so I went to Plymouth College of Art and earned myself a film degree graduating last year.

"I make these particular videos partly because I love it, partly because having this videos will be something good to look back on in years to come and partly because we're all from the same town and hardly anybody knows these exist!
"The GoPro Heroes videos mainly focus around my friend and I up on the hoe having a good time and with underwater adventures thrown in."

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/inc...an-you-think/story-30331562-detail/story.html
 
Largest WWll Civilian Underground Shelter In UK

Ramsgate, Kent.

hundreds of Ramsgate residents adopted a completely subterranean life during the Second World War, after 500 bombs fell in just five minutes on August 24, 1940, destroying people's homes and businesses.
Some 300 families took to living in the tunnels on a permanent basis. Life underground became normal for the people of Ramsgate and street signs, canteens, shops and other services were set up.

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Ramsgate Tunnels official website
 
Long article, with photos:
Inside the tunnels of Drake's Island and Plymouth's other underground secrets
By WMNJBayley | Posted: May 20, 2017
Video: 37m 48s.

There are plenty of myths and stories surrounding Plymouth's supposed forgotten tunnel network.
Legend has it that there is a tunnel which leads from Drake's Island to the Hoe.

Other rumours are of a top secret tunnel network under Mount Wise, and that all the forts in Plymouth are connected by underground passageways.

A labyrinth of smugglers' tunnels are believed to be underneath the Barbican. Centuries ago Plymouth's 'press gang' members reportedly used the tunnels to take unknowing drunken locals to waiting ships.

A few years ago three tunnels in Devonport, dating back to the Napoleonic War, went under the hammer.

The chambers on Devonport Hill were used in World War Two as air raid shelters for Plymouth residents during bombing raids. The chambers' origin was reportedly in the days when Devonport was a fortified town with its own moat and drawbridge.

Here we look a little deeper into Plymouth's hidden underground networks.

etc...

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/ins...ound-secrets/story-30343450-detail/story.html
 
The Plymouth Herald site does not load properly in Safari but it was worth firing up Chrome to take a look!

"When the place was being re-built after the war the existing building along with its cage life in Raleigh Street remained, whilst Royal Parade, with basement, was built."

I began to imagine an underground menagerie! I think "cage lift" was intended! :rofl:
 
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This is Underground in more ways than one!

This series follows more than ten thousand engineers and construction workers as they race to complete the brand new railway directly underneath the city - Crossrail, London's new Underground - in time for the first trains to start running.

Costing fifteen billion pounds, it is the biggest engineering project in Europe. Linda Miller, an engineer more at home constructing space launch complexes at Cape Canaveral, must build what will become Britain's busiest station - Farringdon - an underground structure longer than the Shard skyscraper is tall. Linda and her team battle ancient fault lines that threaten the site with flooding, race to build emergency access tunnels to alleviate pressure on a congested construction site, and piece together a giant geometric jigsaw that will form a cathedral-sized station entrance.

Engineers in Whitechapel must drag the original Victorian station into the 21st century by building a brand new station on top of a bridge, while construction workers build innovative 'floating' rail tracks directly under the Barbican Concert Hall to stop noisy trains from disturbing performances as they travel right underneath the building at 90mph. The episode ends with a very special visitor arriving on site to give it, the railway its new title - the Elizabeth Line.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...n-pound-railway-the-final-countdown-episode-1

Whoever could they mean? :p
 
Exploring under Preston Station

I work there sometimes and use the lifts and subway system to change platforms. I'd suspected that, like many stations, Preston has tunnels that are closed to the public.

Crewe has some nice tunnels, including part of the old Post Office ones which are now open for passengers. They have been tarted up with cladding and a new ceiling, unlike the staff one which still has peeling paint and bare wires and plumbing. (One of my favourite places. I always have to stop and look behind me, just to enjoy the eeriness and the superb Victorian brickwork.)

Tunnels and ghosts! With trains! :cool:
 
Teenagers lost in Paris catacombs for three days.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...d-from-paris-catacombs-after-three-day-ordeal
ORDEAL I should say ordeal. I can't think they're going to be quite the same again.

Two teenagers were rescued from the catacombs beneath Paris on Wednesday after being lost for three days in the pitch-black tunnels of the underground burial ground.
The two, aged 16 and 17, were taken to hospital and were treated for hypothermia after being found by search teams and rescue dogs in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“It was thanks to the dogs that we found them,” a spokesman for the Paris fire service said.
A network of about 150 miles (250km) of underground tunnels forms a maze beneath Paris, with only a small section open to the public at an official visitors’ site in southern Paris.
Entering the other galleries has been against the law since 1955, but schoolchildren and partygoers have been known to access them through secret entrance points.
The transfer of human remains from Parisian cemeteries to the tunnels began towards the end of the 18th century for public health reasons, with the bones of approximately 6 million people found there.
The ambient temperature in the dank narrow passageways is about 15C.
It was not clear who raised the alarm about the missing teenagers or why they got lost. The operator of the Catacombs museum, a popular attraction where queues are sometimes several hours long, stressed that no one had ever got lost in the two kilometres of tunnels open to the public.
 
There's a recent-ish horror movie called As Above, So Below that has the same premise. Life imitating art or art inspiring life?
 
This something I've not heard of before that comes up in the first 5 minutes of a recent edition of Coast:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08tr9n2/coast-series-8-reversions-episode-17

But it's mostly about cliffs...

EDIT: and dung beetles! Which are found on Ramsey Island, Wales (a place I've sailed to, but not landed on). The beetles are prey for the choughs (which are also the emblems of Cornwall, although I've never heard of dung beetles here).

EDIT2: Really, it's mostly about coastal erosion. Probably one of the best Coasts I've seen.
 
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I wasn't aware of this.

WORLD-CLASS UNDERGROUND DISCHARGE CHANNEL

A world-class underground discharge channel has been constructed on the outskirts of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. The tunnel, dug about 50 meters below ground, extends 6.3 km in total. The underground construction, comprising vertical shafts to store floodwater – which look more like gigantic tanks – and a mammoth water tank supported by towering pillars weighing 500 tons each, is far beyond anyone's wildest imagination. It was planned as an anti-flood scheme for local residents and completed in 2006. The underground discharge channel, having employed a variety of new technologies, is the very best of Japan's state-of-the-art civil engineering technology.

Gigantic Underground Shaft

Japan is a long ribbon of islands stretching north to south, divided by a spine of steep mountains occupying 75% of the land. Steep rivers flowing into the ocean easily overflow when heavy rain falls. So, Japan's effort to develop flood-control technology dates back to the ancient past. The Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, an underground discharge channel constructed in Saitama Prefecture adjacent to Tokyo, represents technological innovations accumulated over many centuries.

The discharge channel is a mechanism to drain water from flooded residential areas into five gigantic vertical shafts built below ground and then discharge it into rivers through an underground tunnel connecting the shafts.

The cylindrical shafts are about 70 meters tall. The large shafts measure about 30 meters in diameter, spacious enough to park a space shuttle.

The connecting tunnel 50 meters below ground measures about 10 meters in diameter. The tunnel stretches for 6.3 km, including a sharp curved line with a minimum radius of 250 meters.

Before being discharged into rivers, the drained water is stored in a huge pressure-controlled tank. The tank is designed to perform multiple functions, including abating the force of running water and adjusting water pressure that could change sharply if a water pump breaks down. Measuring 177 meters long and 78 meters wide, and lying about 22 meters below ground, the water tank is larger than a soccer pitch. The ceiling of the water tank is supported by 59 pillars which are 18 meters tall and weigh 500 tons each. An inside look at the tank structure conjures up the image of a “temple” below ground.

Developing New Construction Method

The underground tunnel for drainage, dug with a gigantic shield tunneling machine, employed an improved segment technology. Segments, which are concrete plates, used to be bolted together to form the outer wall of a tunnel. It consumed a lot of time to bolt them.

In constructing the underground channel, however, segments were joined together with a wedge method developed on the principle of wedging instead of bolting. Unlike bolted walls with an uneven surface, joined walls have a smooth surface and are instrumental in greatly reducing construction time. The segment-joining method was jointly developed by six Japanese companies, including general contractors, and it became possible to reduce the time to build walls so much so that it has emerged as a standard method for large tunnel construction work.

Rapid & Massive Water Discharge

Flood water stored in the channel can be discharged into rivers at a maximum rate of 200 cubic meters per second. In other words, a 25-meter swimming pool full of water is drained in a second. Under this mechanism, each drainage pump has a high-speed impeller that gives flowing energy to water, discharging it rapidly.

The impeller is powered by a gas turbine engine, a modified version of the high-performance engine used in jetliners. Hot, strong wind generated by burning fuel revolves the impeller, which in turn makes the water flow. The impeller is compact and generates less vibration and noise, saving much needed space below ground.

After the underground discharge channel was completed, a torrential rain hit the area in August 2008. The facility was able to discharge into rivers about 12 million cubic meters of water, a record high, or the equivalent of 25,000 25-meter swimming pools.

Flood control using an underground discharge channel has attracted worldwide attention and draws visits by flood control experts from many countries, including China and South Korea. Japan has a small land area and cities are densely populated, making it difficult to build large water discharge channels on the surface. Japan has solved this dilemma with its civil engineering and flood-control technologies.

(March 2013)

Link with slightly underwhelming photographs:
http://web-japan.org/trends/11_tech-life/tec130312.html
 
Before they use it, it could make a great set for an SF film.
 
Post Office Train Tunnels Reopening

Rail Mail is opening up to the public from the start of September with trips available for adults and children alike to journey underground and learn about the history of the railway.

The tunnels, which run for 6.5 miles under the capital, are complete with platforms and link six different sorting offices with the mainline stations of Paddington and Liverpool Street.


Mail-Rail-picPNG.png
 
'Hundreds' of undiscovered caves underneath Nottingham

Hundreds of man-made caves dating back as far as the 9th Century lie waiting to be discovered underneath Nottingham, the city's archaeologist has said.
The caves, which were used as dungeons, bomb shelters and homes, number about 800.

Scott Lomax uncovered his 152nd new cave in the city in just 12 months last week.
Nottingham is built on soft sandstone making it easier to dig into, but strong enough for structural stability.

...
  • A Welsh monk named Asser referred to Nottingham as Tig Guocobauc, which means "house" or "place of caves"
  • Cave dwelling has been a part of the city's history, particularly during the Industrial Revolution when homes were scarce
  • Some caves were used as tanneries, secret hideouts and World War Two air raid shelters
  • Caves are used to keep ale at a consistent cool temperature at some pubs in the city
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-40668609
 
Vid at link.

A pair of amateur explorers in Canada hit the jackpot when they ventured underneath the bustling streets of Montreal and found a massive underground passage.

The vast hidden tunnel was previously undiscovered despite stretching for hundreds of metres under the city. Facebook Messenger is down and people can't cope Rock formations are understood to date back more than 15,000 years to the Earth’s last ice age.

‘It’s just beautiful,’ said Luc Le Blanc, who found the network of caverns earlier this year with fellow ‘caver’ Daniel Caron. ‘The walls sometimes look like layers of fudge and chocolate; there’s brown, there’s dark brown, there’s ochre.’ The pair took camera crews around the cave underground passage recently, which has been recorded by the Toronto Star.


Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2017/12/05/amate...ound-cave-for-first-time-7133472/?ito=cbshare
 
A bit of a miscellany of underground Britain here, but some enjoyable footage:

 
During the early 1940s, eight deep-level shelters were built to protect the population from bombing (seven along the Northern line and one at Chancery lane).

The shelters could accommodate up to 8,000 people in a pair of parallel tunnels deep beneath the street. Unfortunately, they were not completed until after the main Blitz, so only saw limited use.

The shelters were cleverly designed so that, after the war, they might be linked together to form an express tube line (a plan that had already been mooted before hostilities began). Alas, more pressing needs meant that the money never materialised.


http://londonist.com/london/secret/where-to-see-london-s-secret-deep-level-shelters
 
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