A tunnel to link Europe with Africa, to cost over 3 billion Euros

The construction of a tunnel linking Europe and Africa through the Gibraltar Strait will cost more than three billion EUROS, revealed on Monday, Spanish minister of development.

Francisco Alvarez Cascos said that this tunnel will be "in the 21st century what the Suez Canal was in the 19th century and what the Panama Canal was in the 2Oth century."

The longtime planned construction of this tunnel could begin within five years after Spain and Morocco agreed to a major engineering study of the Strait of Gibraltar. The tunnel could be dug between Punta Paloma in southern Spain and Punta Malabata near Tangier in Morocco. It would run for 38.5 kilometers and would pass beneath the strait for 27 kilometers at a depth of about 300 metres.

The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow and turbulent stretch of water connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The shortest distance across is just 19 kilometers. But the seabed is so deep across this stretch that a tunnel would need to be dug at a depth of 900 meters.

Spain and Morocco agreed to conduct a detailed engineering survey to determine the feasibility of a tunnel.

The Spanish transport ministry said 27m Euros ($33m) would be spent on the study but added that construction of the tunnel itself would begin no sooner than 2008.

"The final route and the depth of the tunnel will depend on the geological studies, which require a series of complex tests," said a statement from the Spanish transport ministry.

The ministry has already built an experimental tunnel that is more than half a kilometer long. Core samples of the rock beneath the strait will be taken to develop a picture of its geology.

Like the Channel Tunnel, which links the UK and France beneath the English Channel, the new link would consist of two main tunnels linked by a smaller maintenance passageway. But the Channel Tunnel is slightly longer, covering 49 kilometer.