Tyne pedestrian and cyclist tunnel

The Tyne Pedestrian and Cyclist Tunnels run under the River Tyne between Howdon and Jarrow in Tyne & Wear, England. Opened in 1951, heralded as a contribution to the Festival of Britain, they were Britain's first purpose-built cycling tunnels. The original cost was £833,000 and the tunnels were used by 20,000 people a day. They consist of two tunnels running in parallel, one for pedestrian use with a 3.2 m (10 ft 6 in) diameter, and a larger 3.7 m (12 ft 2 in) diameter tunnel for pedal cyclists. Both tunnels are 270 m (884 ft) in length, and lie 12 m (40 ft) below the river bed, at their deepest point. The tunnels are over 70 years old and are Grade II listed buildings. Each end the tunnels were originally connected to surface buildings by two escalators and a vertical lift; however, as part of the tunnels' refurbishment, on each side one escalator will be replaced with an inclined lift and the remaining escalator was made static, into a staircase. The Waygood-Otis escalators have 306 wooden steps each, and are the original models from 1951. At the time of construction, they were the highest single-rise escalators in the UK, with a vertical rise of 85 feet (26 m) and a length of 197 feet (60 m). In 1992, escalators with a higher vertical rise of 90 feet (27.4 m) and 200 feet (61 m) in length were constructed at Angel station on the London Underground. The Tyne Tunnel escalators remain the longest wooden escalators in the world. 20,000 people a month used the pedestrian tunnel in 2013.