Tunnel

Dubai authorities have inked a deal with The Boring Company to create a network of tunnels likened to a "wormhole" that will allow users to move at speed under Dubai's streets and avoid traffic congestion.

A decade after it was revealed, London's "super sewer" is now finally complete. The mega-project is expected to revolutionize the handling of waste in the British capital, boosting the capacity of its 150-year-old sewer system significantly.

When you think of bamboo, you probably don't think of sea-spanning bridges or world records or typhoons, but it's been eight years and the bamboo is just fine.

Deep below the rugged landscape of central China lies an engineering marvel the size of a 60-story building, boring chunks of hard rock and soil, inch by inch, on a quest to bring water to millions of people.

Jinan, a city of 9.4 million people and the capital of Shandong Province in East China, has made world headlines. Crews working there have completed the monumental task of building the world's largest-diameter underwater shield tunnel.

Stormwater culverts can be dangerous places, due to hazards such as crumbling concrete ceilings and toxic gas accumulations. The PIPE-i robot was designed with that fact in mind, as it takes the place of a human when inspecting such structures.

This past weekend China opened the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, a new cross-sea tunnel and bridge system located in Guangdong Province, South China. The architectural marvel apparently breaks 10 world records – albeit very specific ones.

An ambitious underwater road and rail tunnel is currently under construction in Europe. Named the Fehmarnbelt tunnel, it will cross an 11.2-mile stretch of the Baltic Sea, linking Germany and Denmark.

Hidden 40 m below London's streets lies a fascinating network of tunnels. Originally conceived as a bomb shelter during WWII, they also hosted a high-tech telecommunications system, and even a spy HQ. Now there's a plan to open them up to the public.

Traffic is among the biggest sources of air pollution, but what if the very roads they drive on could help clear the air? Engineers in Korea have now demonstrated that photocatalytic concrete can help reduce pollution in tunnels.

Bay Area startup Earthgrid says it's developing a plasma boring robot that can dig underground tunnels 100x faster and up to 98% cheaper than existing tech, and it plans to use it to start re-wiring America's energy, internet and utilities grids.

A lot less technologically optimistic than the Hyperloop-TT Hyperport project, Cargo Sous Terrain looks considerably more likely to happen, with its first 10-stop, 70-km (43-mile) series of underground tunnels scheduled to begin taking cargo in 2031.