The tunnel will be 23 miles – and will be completely out of sight.
The tunnel is still being built(Image: Ian Forsyth, Getty Images)
Britain’s longest tunnel is currently under construction beneath a national park, and it’s set to snatch the title from the Northern Line on the London Underground as the nation’s lengthiest.
The ambitious project is making significant progress, though its price tag has spiralled dramatically from an initial £1.1billion estimate to a reported staggering £7.4billion.
The massive undertaking will transport fertiliser across 23 miles, running entirely underground and out of view.
The Northern Line currently holds the record at 17 miles, having opened back in 1937. But the Woodsmith Mine Tunnel is on track to open in 2030 and claim the crown as the UK’s longest.
Managed by Anglo American, the tunnel is the largest private sector infrastructure scheme in the country. The aim is to extract polyhalite – a nutrient-packed fertiliser – from the North York Moors near Whitby and transport it to a processing facility in Teesside.
Sirius Minerals originally owned the project and provided the initial cost projections. However, reports from 2023 indicated the scheme had already blown well past its budget, reports the Express.
Tom McCulley, head of Anglo American’s crop nutrients division, previously acknowledged that estimates of $9billion costs were “not too far off”, according to the Times.
The route will run from an underground reserve near Whitby to a processing plant in Wilton, close to Teesside.
Last month marked a significant achievement as the project surpassed 30km in length – just over 18 miles.
The tunnel boring machine (TBM), dubbed Stella Rose, smashed the record for the longest continuous drive by a single TBM.
Andrew Johnson, project director at Woodsmith, said recently: “We are incredibly proud of this milestone. The Woodsmith Project is one of the most innovative mining developments in the world today and construction is progressing well.”
He added: “We currently employ 1,100 people in the area of which 75% are local – something we are incredibly proud of.
“We are also proud to have a small international workforce with the specialist expertise we need for this unique world-class engineering project that will provide employment for hundreds of local people for many many years to come.”
The tunnel proposal initially faced opposition. Sirius Minerals successfully navigated 98 environmental regulations to secure planning permission for Britain’s first deep mine in over four decades.