Owen I. Skurdal
Informative Speech Outline
February 4th, 2022
Topic: The Chunnel (The Channel Tunnel)
General Purpose: To inform
Specific Purpose: After listening to my speech, the audience will know what the Chunnel is, and why it is
amazing.
Central Idea/Thesis: The Chunnel was an amazingly engineered project, that was made possible by
investors with the mission to create something that had never been done before.
Organizational Pattern: Topical
I.
INTRODUCTION
By a show of hand who here has ever been to Britain or France? Well, there is a tunnel connecting these
two, it is called channel tunnel, or Chunnel for short. It was called Channel Tunnel because it is built
under the English Channel. There are many books that have been written explaining every detail about
the Chunnel. Two I have found interesting are from, Colin S. Harris, and Colin J. Kirkland, they are both
engineers who have authored books about the engineering of the Chunnel, they collected information
from multiple sources, written research, and published journals from engineers who worked on the
Chunnel. The Chunnel is an amazing accomplishment by investors, with the mission to create something
that had never been done before. I will explain to you what the channel tunnel is, the timeline of it being
constructed, and the importance of it.
II.
Body
So, what is the Chunnel?
a. Chunnel runs under the English Channel from Folkstone, Kent, England, Uk to Coquilles,
Hauts-de-France, France. It is 50.46-kilometer-long from point to point and is 75 meters
(246 feet) below sea level. The Chunnel has three connecting tunnels, two for trains,
and one for maintenance vehicles.
i. To put the length in perspective, The Channel tunnel is 31.5 miles long,
according to Eurostar, “this is equivalent to 169 Eiffel Towers”.
1. “The Channel Tunnel is 50.45 km (about 31.35 mi) long. That's the
equivalent of 169 Eiffel Towers stacked on top of each other.” (Eurostar)
2. “Is a 50.46-kilometer (31.35 mi) railway tunnel that connects Folkestone
(Kent, England, UK) With Coquelles (Hauts-de-France, France) Beneath
the English Channel at the Strait of Dover” (Wikipedia)
3. “The Chunnel runs between Calais in northern France and Folkestone in
south Kent. Vehicle traffic for Le Shuttle gets on in Calais and gets off in
Folkestone. Calais is about three hours' drive from Paris and Folkestone
is about an hour and a half's drive from London. " (Eurostar)
4. “At its deepest, the tunnel is 75 meters (246 feet) below sea
level.” (Eurostar)
ii. “The shuttle trains carrying vehicles and passengers take half an hour to cross
from Britain to France.” (Anderson & Rockrow, x. The Channel Tunnel Story)
1. “It is 3 tunnel connection one way on each direction, and a middle for
road service and technical equipment” (Euronews 1:00 minute)
2. “The shuttle trains carrying vehicles and passengers take half an hour to
cross from Britain to France.” (Anderson & Rockrow, x. The Channel
Tunnel Story)
3. “The Channel Tunnel is made of three separate tunnels running parallel
to each other. One train tunnel running south (UK to France), one train
tunnel running north (France to UK) and one service tunnel. (Eurostar)
Now the Timeline of the Chunnel
b. Chunnel project was started in 1973 but was stopped in 1975 by the government. Then
in 1986 it started again and finished in 1992. And opened to the public by mid-1994.
I. The reason the government stopped the project in 1975 was because of
the cost. They had no intentions of continuing until according to Kirkland,
“In 1984 the two governments were persuaded by the bankers that a
privately funded scheme was possible.” (Kirkland, 2). Then in 1986, A
Treaty was signed by the leaders of Britain and France, called the Treaty
of Canterbury, that provided the document for the undersea tunnel
between the two countries. So, the construction industry's started
digging again. The project lasted 6 years (1992) then according to
Anderson & Rockrow, in “May 1994 Channel Tunnel was formally opened
by the Queen of England, and President Mitterrand of France.” (Anderson
& Rockrow, xi).
1. “The project was started in 1973 but then was abandoned by the
government in 1975 after about 250m (about 820.21 ft) of the tunnel”
(Kirkland, 1, From Engineering the channel tunnel).
2. “Mid 1994 Freight and passenger services start operations.” (The
Channel Tunnel Story)
3. “In 1984 the two governments were persuaded by the bankers that a
privately funded scheme was possible.” (Kirkland, 2)
The Chunnel project was important because it showed the potential of people
working without government aid.
c. The creation of the Chunnel showed the potential of private investors.
II. Private investors. The governments made it clean, they were not going to
help with the Chunnel after they stopped production in 1975. Anderson
& Rockrow, “From the very start the two governments stressed that no
money nor guarantees would be made available” (Anderson & Rockrow,
194). So, they needed funds for this project. That is where the private
investors come in. The entire project was funded by private investors.
Kirkland says, “Every aspect was pared down in order to be able to
demonstrate the feasibility of such a huge undertaking, to be built
entirely without governmental support.” (Kirkland, 313)
1. “From the very start the two governments stressed that no money nor
guarantees would be made available” (Anderson & Rockrow, 194)
2. “Final cost of around £10 billion” (The Channel Tunnel Story)
3. “The project had to be totally privately financed, as there was to be no
government support of any kind. The UK government would not permit
itself to take any action that might be construed as giving any kind of
financial guarantee to the concessionaire.” (Kirkland, 2)
4. “It was built with private, not public, money—an experimental
arrangement seen by free-market politicians as a crucial acid test of
whether private finance could be successfully used for major
infrastructure projects.” (Anderson & Rockrow, xi)
5. “Every aspect was pared down in order to be able to demonstrate the
feasibility of such a huge undertaking, to be built entirely without
governmental support.” (Kirkland, 313)
Inconclusion, the creation of the Channel tunnel is very impressive.
III.
Conclusion
The 50.45 km (about 31.35 mi) long tunnel that only took six years create, required an
immense amount of support from investors for success. We are now able to look back at this
project and see the capabilities of private investors and construction industries who are
pursuing something they believe in. I will end with this quote from Anderson “The same amount
of money could have built five nuclear power stations or over half a million new homes. Nothing
like it has ever been constructed anywhere in the world before. It is also the first land link
between Britain and continental Europe since the Ice Age. The Channel Tunnel is the greatest
project since the pyramids” (Anderson, x)
Work Cited:
CRC Press (1995). Engineering the Channel Tunnel edited by Colin J. Kirkland.
Retrieved from
https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primoexplore/fulldisplay?docid=CP71295785390001451&context=L&vid=UW&lang=en_US&search_sc
ope=all&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,Engineerin
g%20the%20Channel%20Tunnel%20
CRC Press (2018). CHANNEL TUNNEL STORY. Edited By G Anderson, B. Roskrow
Retrieved from
https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primoexplore/fulldisplay?docid=CP71295920720001451&context=L&vid=UW&lang=en_US&search_sc
ope=all&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,CHANNEL%
20TUNNEL%20STORY.&offset=0
Euronews (2014). Channel Tunnel out of the depths 20 years on.
Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jtQ_U9p3wY
Eurostar (2014). The Channel Tunnal.
Retrieved from
Channel tunnel | Chunnel and Eurotunnel (eurostar.com)
Wikipedia (2022). Channel Tunnel.
Retrieved from
Channel Tunnel - Wikipedia