Inside plans for 24-mile undersea tunnel connecting two CONTINENTS allowing you to drive from Spain to Morocco in mins
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AN UNDERSEA tunnel connecting Western Europe and Western Africa could see passengers make the 24-mile journey in minutes. The Strait of Gibraltar tunnel project stands to link Spain and Morocco, allowing users to drive 300 metres below sea level at its lowest point for an estimated 12.8million people annually.
It plans to offer a connection across continents, from Punta Paloma, in the south of the Cadiz region in Spain, and Malabata, near Tangier in Morocco. The ambitious project has been put off since 2009, with the first concept for the design emerging nearly 100 years ago in 1930.
SECEGSA, one of the public companies established in 1980 to carry out the project, says that the tunnel would reduce travel time between Madrid and Casablanca to just five-and-a-half hours. This is compared to the current two-hour flight duration or the 12-hour, 621-mile car or ferry journey.
If this plan was completed, it would be considered one of the most significant feats of engineering in modern history. Current technology made the idea feasible again in 2023, and there have been promising advances since then, leading up to its planned 2030 completion.
The 24-mile journey would only see passengers at ground level for a little over 2 miles, or eight per cent of the journey. The rest of the trip would allow people to experience 17 miles in an underwater tunnel, and six miles in an underground tunnel only.