document: It 's been described as the largest current civil engineering project , a multibillion dollar link that will help revolutionize Europe 's economy and physically end Britain 's historic isolation , a dream born in Napoleon 's day . The `` Chunnel '' between Britain and France is half-dug and scheduled to open on time in three years . But the three-tunnel thoroughfare under the English Channel is almost 60 percent over budget , embroiled in a contractor dispute and scrambling for more investment money . The project also has raised increasing hostility among many Britons , who fear it will provide an easy conduit for ills from the continent ranging from terrorism to rabid animals . `` We will have the money to finish the project , '' says Alastair Morton , British deputy chairman of Eurotunnel , the privately owned Anglo-French company overseeing the work . The Chunnel 's June 15 , 1993 scheduled debut will come six months after the 12-nation European Community formally drops remaining trade barriers and becomes a unified marketplace of 320 million consumers . But the project 's success hinges on much more than just finishing the undug part . While the French are forging ahead with a high-speed rail link to their end of the tunnel , for example , state-owned British Rail is dragging . `` Britain becomes branch line of Europe , '' a Guardian newspaper headline declared after the government announced June 14 that it would not fund a high-speed rail link between London and the British end of the tunnel . It 's not the first time the idea of a tunnel has irritated Britain 's island identity . The British resisted an undersea bond with the continent envisioned nearly 200 years ago by a French engineer named Albert Mathieu . Napoleon wanted to build it but Britain warned him off . Tunneling actually was started in subsequent efforts in 1882 and 1974 but they were scrapped . The Chunnel project also has been marred by eight accidental deaths on the site . The British public demonstrates little enthusiasm for the Chunnel . Random samplings elicit fears that it will import rabies , terrorists , invading armies . `` There is an attitude in France that this is a great project in the national interest . In this country , the attitude to these projects tends to be the reverse , '' Morton told a recent news conference . Eurotunnel Chairman Andre Benard said the company has provided for any foreseeable problems , but stressed : `` We always made it very clear that this was a risk project . '' Giant boring machines are digging three tunnels toward each other from Folkestone , England and Calais , France , with the first underground meeting expected in November in the service tunnel between the rail tunnels . Tunneling is three months ahead of schedule on the French side , a week behind on the British . As of mid-June , workers had dug 53.2 of the total 91.9 miles . Chunnel trains will carry passengers , cars and freight between London and Paris in about three hours , roughly the same time as a flight including ground travel , and at least twice as fast as a car-ferry journey . Eurotunnel estimates that 28 million passengers and 17 percent of Britain 's non-oil trade will pass through the tunnel in the first year . The Civil Aviation Authority says the tunnel should divert 5 million out of 53 million air passengers annually . This past Wednesday , shareholders approved a sale of an extra $ 906 million worth of stock to existing shareholders , who already have bought $ 1.7 billion worth . That step could clear the way for a bank syndicate 's approval of additional credit Eurotunnel has requested , from $ 8.6 billion to $ 12 billion . Assuming banks approve , the project would have a total of about $ 14.6 billion in debt and equity financing . The company most recently estimated it would cost $ 13.1 billion to complete , vs. $ 8.3 billion forecast initially . `` History dictates that that will not be the last figure we hear . But the order of magnitude of increase will slow down , '' said Richard Hannah , a transport analyst with the London investment firm UBS Phillips and Drew . He expected the extra financing to come through . `` It 's one of these situations where the more money you put in , the more you have to spend or else you 're walking away from billions of pounds , '' Hannah said . Eurotunnel says it does n't expect to p end of the century , and probably wo n't pay shareholders a dividend until 1999 , four years later than envisioned . But stockholders haven ` rofit before thet fared badly : The shares , first traded in November 1987 at about $ 6 , have traded recently at $ 8.55 . The more urgent worries for Eurotunnel have been costs , creditors and contractor feuds . In October , concern about the rising pricetag drove Eurotunnel 's banking syndicate to freeze funds for three months until the company reached a truce with Trans-Manche Link , the consortium of 10 British and French contractors doing the construction , over responsibility for $ 1.7 billion in overruns . The problems led to Eurotunnel 's second management shakeup since 1987 . The British government 's refusal to finance a rail link has presented another big obstacle . Eurotunnel says is can survive without a new link . But cnt that she wo n't spend taxpayers ' money on a rail link . The French government , on the contrary , is spending roughly $ 2.8 billion building 210 miles of rail from Paris to the tunnel , with a branch to Brussels , where the EC is headquartered . Trains capable of 190 mph will link the tunnel 's freight and passengers to another planned high-speed system . One reason the French are enthusiastic is that the tunnel surfaces in one of the most depressed areas of France . On the other hand , residents of Kent , in England 's rural and prosperous Southeast , have campaigned strenuously against having high-speed trains screaming through their back yards .
extractive_keyphrases: english channel contractor dispute chunnel project chunnel trains rail tunnels budget easy conduit investment money
abstractive_keyphrases: high-speed rail link three-tunnel thoroughfare