document: A colossal tunneling machine is boring beneath the English Channel from the white cliffs of Dover , pursuing a dream born in Napoleon 's time that is coming true at last . Another is digging from the French coast in what the tunnel builders call the largest civil engineering project now under way in the world . The 31-mile tunnel , 24 miles of it underwater , will cut the London-Paris journey from six hours to three , as fast as a scheduled airline . It will enable freight to travel on one train instead of being shifted to trucks for a cross-channel ferry trip subject to weather and shipping strikes . Tunneling speed at the Dover end is less than 15 feet an hour and the machine boring from the geologically more complex French end moves even slower , which is why the tunnel will not open until 1993 . For continental Europeans , accustomed to long-distance rail travel , the tunnel is but a small spur on a vast network stretching to Moscow and beyond . For the British , the change wrought by what many call the `` chunnel '' will be enormous . Some wonder whether Britain will be ready for it . `` People still question whether the tunnel will be complete in May 1993 and that 's ridiculous , '' says Kathy Watson , co-author of a book on the project . `` They 're still arguing about whether it will introduce rabies into this country , or let in terrorists . '' `` They discuss it in terms of their being an island race , with a channel that has kept out invaders , '' she said in an interview . State-owned British Rail will not commit itself to building a high-speed link from London to the tunnel in time to make the three-hour journey a reality in 1993 . It intends instead to improve existing tracks . Eurotunnel , the Anglo-French consortium that will own the tunnel , is urging British Rail to speed its plans . Critics say the tangle of commuter lines in southeast England , so obsolete that trains can be delayed by a sudden fall of autumn leaves , will delay tunnel traffic . The consortium forecasts 16.5 million passengers in 1993 but the railroad says that figure will not be reached before 1998 . Arriving channel trains will terminate at Waterloo station in south London , at a large customs and immigration terminal . Critics say this will waste time and Britain should follow the continental practice of handling such matters on the train during the journey . British stations , bridges and tunnels are not built for the tall loads commonly carried across the channel . That means many loads will have to be repacked or transferred to trucks unless the facilities are rebuilt . The grandiose project has been on and off the drawing boards for more than 200 years . Napoleon wanted to bore a tunnel in 1802 but Britain 's generals warned him off . Digging began in 1882 but was halted by British fears of French invasion through the tunnel . Britain 's entry into the European Economic Community engendered a spirit of unity and the digging began again in 1974 , but two years later a new British government shelved the project . With trade barriers among the 12 EEC countries set to fall in 1992 , Colin Kirkland , technical director of Eurotunnel 's on the British side , says the tunnel will be completed this time . He says the entire cost of 5.2 billion pound -LRB- $ 8.8 billion -RRB- project is privately financed and cancellation would cost the governments `` enormous penalties '' to shareholders . Also , the governments signed a tunnel treaty in February 1986 and both would have to agree to cancellation . `` There 's no way that politicians will cancel this project , '' Kirkland said in an interview . `` It 's quite difficult to get one government to agree . To get two is bloody nigh impossible . '' Money 's power to move the tunnel forward was demonstrated in August , when drilling fell behind schedule . Eurotunnel ordered a management shakeup and threatened Trans-Manche Link , the consortium of 10 British and French engineering companies building the tunnel , with penalties of $ 25 million if the diggers did not pass the three-mile mark by Nov. 1 . From a a rate of 380 feet a week , the pace quickly accelerated and recently achieved a week 's record of 480 feet , Kirkland said . The timetable calls for 650 feet a week and Kirkland is confident of reaching it . The tunnel , 80-130 feet below the seabed , was 2 miles into the channel from this end Oct. 9 , the most recent measurement available , and the French had progressed about 1,300 feet . Digging began last December . At its peak , the project will employ about 11,000 workers and 11 tunneling machines . Construction of the two one-way train tunnels begins in December . A smaller service tunnel running between them now is being dug . Tunneling machines simultaneously dig , remove rock and put up tunnel walls . With a laser beam to keep the driver on course , the 700-foot-long behemoth creeps along , pressing curved slabs of Scottish granite and pulverized ash into the newly exposed tunnel wall . In an emergency like flooding , the cylindrical head of the machine can expand to become a cork , blocking off the water and spraying concrete into the cavity to seal the leak . Once the all-clear is given , the two-story-high rotating blade with its tungsten teeth resumes chewing ahead . Because the machines are too large to be removed , when the digging is complete they will be rolled aside and walled in . The tunnels are to be completed in 1991 , then the railroad tracks will be laid . Eurotunnel will run shuttle trains once every three minutes at peak times between terminals near Folkestone and Calais , and British Rail and the Frenh state railroad will operate trains from London and Paris . Cars and trucks will drive onto the shuttle trains and be able to stay in their vehicles or stroll about during the 35-minute tunnel passage .
extractive_keyphrases: english channel french coast freight tunnel traffic channel trains british fears tunnel builders tunneling speed
abstractive_keyphrases: 31-mile tunnel london-paris journey cross-channel ferry trip