Tallinn-Helsingi raudteetunneli tuulutusšahtide rajamise kontseptuaalne projekt [Magistritöö. Juhendaja: T. Tomberg]

FINEST is a tunnel designed to connect Finland and Estonia using a railway system and it will be situated under the Gulf of Finland.

At the moment, all traffic flow comes through ferry freight and it increases every year. That is the main reason why idea of this tunnel is so important and why it is currently on high demand. Also, FINEST allows Finland to conncet with West and Central Europe via Rail Baltic, if it is constucted.

Construction of the tunnel is planned to start from both sides (Finland and Estonia). Firstly, utility corridor will be built, it has a samaller diameeter, so the construction will be quicker. It will be fllowed with 2 railway tunnels about 10 metres away from the corridor. It is planned that both ends will be connected in the middle of the Gulf of Finland.

With tunnel construction an artificial island must be considered along with the vertical ventilation shaft (215 m deep in the water and 10 m diameter). Island must be spacious enough for residential buildings (for workers), office buildings, where monitoring can be carried out. Also ventilation systems, diesel generators, first aid spot, helipad, road network and railway platforms. To accommodate all those facilities, area of the island has to be around 10 ha. To build such an island 1,020,000 m³ of filament will be required. Tallinnamadala lighthouse is a great spot and can be used for artificial island construction.

In the framework of this master thesis a preliminary project is made for ventilation shaft construction, which will be built along with the island.

The aim of this master thesis is to offer technical solutions for artificial island and ventilation shaft construction including calculations of volume of work, construction materials and availability from the area