I have harbored this idea of an Ice Tunnel since my engineering days at the National Institute of Technology Srinagar. Snow, Ice, and sub-zero temperatures are the biggest challenges at the remote and high altitude passes of Ladakh. This makes it exceedingly difficult to keep the roads open for more than six months a year. But then the same challenges can become the most abundantly available resources at these difficult locations if we apply them correctly. Ice has high compressive strength and in a parabolic arched tunnel all the forces are compressive only, and since the sub-zero temperatures can keep it frozen most of the year we should be able to make seasonal ice tunnels on high passes in places like Ladakh.
At the Zojila where a real mountain tunnel is being built, such tunnels could cover the approach roads up to the tunnel, which would be roughly 20 Kms on either side. Keeping these roads cleared of the heavy snowfall and avalanches could easily cost up to a million dollars and roughly 500 tons of Co2 emission each year.
Who knows my crazy Ice Tunnel could become an interesting solution to this challenge… using the problem itself as a solution.
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26 фев 2021
