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For over a thousand years, sailors rounding Norway’s rugged Stad Peninsula have feared the Stadhavet Sea — a treacherous convergence of the North Sea and Norwegian Sea where hurricane-force winds and 100-foot waves strike over 100 days a year. Rather than forcing coastal cargo vessels and passenger ferries to wait days for storms to pass, the Norwegian Coastal Administration is blasting the Stad Ship Tunnel — the world’s first full-scale subterranean tunnel built for ocean-going ships. Cutting 1.05 miles (1.7 kilometers) straight through the narrowest neck of the mountain peninsula, engineers will excavate 3 million cubic meters of solid gneiss bedrock — enough stone to fill 1,200 Olympic swimming pools. Unlike historic narrow canal tunnels for small river barges, the Stad cavern will tower 160 feet (49 meters) high and 118 feet (36 meters) wide, with a 39-foot-deep sea channel capable of handling 16,000-ton Hurtigruten coastal cruise ships. Guided by an automated maritime air-traffic-style control system, up to five ships per hour will sail calmly through the lit mountain hall while winter tempests rage outside. #EngineeringFacts #Norway #StadShipTunnel #Megaprojects #TunnelEngineering #MaritimeEngineering