TUNNELING PROJECTS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

Until some thirty years ago tunnelling in southern Africa for civil en gineering purposes had been on a relatively small scale and of a spora dic nature. The first major tunnel to be built in the region was the 8 2 Km long Orange-Fish Tunnel. Since 1970 more than 175 tunnels with an aggregate length of just over 400 Km have been built. Much of the fir st phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which will have more than 100 km of tunnels, is about to be completed. The last thirty year s represent the busiest period of tunnelling by civil engineers that s outhern Africa has ever Known. The paper starts by summarising the ear ly history of tunnelling in the region, and goes on to describe recent and current tunnelling projects. It also gives an indication of the p ossible demand for tunnels in the future. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevi er Science Ltd.