Deep level underground refers to constructions 20 metres or more below ground and not using the cut and cover method, especially railway stations, air raid shelters and bunkers and some tunnels and mines. Cut-and-cover is a simple method of construction for shallow tunnels where a trench is excavated and roofed over with an overhead support system strong enough to carry the load of what is to be built above the tunnel.
History
Although some deep mining took place as early as the late Tudor period deep shaft mining in Britain began to develop extensively in the late 18th century, with rapid expansion throughout the 19th century and early 20th century when the industry peaked. Before 1800 a great deal of coal was left in places as extraction was still primitive. As a result, in the deep Tyneside pits only about 40 percent of the coal could be extracted. The use of wooden pit props to support the roof was an innovation first introduced about 1800. Before any plans were made for transit systems with tunnels and stations, several railway operators had used tunnels for freight and passenger trains, usually to reduce the grade of the railway line. Examples include Trevithick's Tunnel from 1804, built for the Penydarren locomotive, the 1829 Crown Street Tunnel at Liverpool and the long 1836 Lime Street Tunnel also at Liverpool, of which a part is still used today making it the world's oldest used tunnel. The first urban underground railway was the Metropolitan Railway, which began operations on January 10, 1863. It was built largely in shallow tunnels and is now part of the London Underground. It was worked by steam trains, and despite the creation of numerous vents, was unhealthy and uncomfortable for passengers and operating staff. Nevertheless, its trains were popular from the start and the Metropolitan Railway and the competing Metropolitan District Railway developed the inner circle around central London and an extensive system of suburban branches to the northwest, the west, the southwest and the east. Liverpool James Street railway station together with Hamilton Square underground station in Birkenhead are the oldest deep level underground stations in the world. The stations were so deep they required lifts to access easily, this gave another world's first in having the first lift accessed stations. The lifts were hydraulically operated. For the first deep-level tube line, the City and South London Railway, two diameter circular tunnels were dug between King William Street and Stockwell, under the roads to avoid the need for agreement with owners of property on the surface. This opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells.
Construction
Cut-and-cover is a simple method of construction for shallow tunnels where a trench is excavated and roofed over with an overhead support system strong enough to carry the load of what is to be built above the tunnel. Modern Deep level Construction is by tunnel boring machines. The Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines are services that run on the sub-surface network that has railway tunnels just below the surface and built mostly using the "cut-and-cover" method. The tunnels and trains are of a similar size to those on British main lines. The Hammersmith & City and Circle lines share all their stations and most of the track with other lines. The Bakerloo, Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria and Waterloo & City lines are deep-level tubes, with smaller trains that run in two circular tunnels with a diameter of about, lined with cast-iron or precast concrete rings, which were bored using a tunnelling shield. It is these that were the tube lines, although since the 1950s the term "tube" has come to be used to refer to the whole London Underground system.
Deepest railway stations
Some London Underground stops are deep-level stations. Operated by Great Northern, Essex Road railway station is the only deep level underground station in London served solely by National Rail trains.
Deepest mines
The deepest mines in the world are the TauTona and Savuka gold mines in the Witwatersrand region of South Africa, which are currently working at depths exceeding. There are plans to extend Mponeng mine, a sister mine to TauTona, down to in the coming years.
This region is also the location of the harshest conditions for hard rock mining, where workers toil in temperatures of up to. However, massive refrigeration plants are used to bring the air temperature down to around.
The deepest hard rock mine in North America is Agnico-Eagle's LaRonde mine, which mines gold, zinc, copper and silver ores roughly east of Rouyn-Noranda in Cadillac, Quebec. LaRonde's Penna shaft is believed to be the deepest single lift shaft in the Western Hemisphere. The #4 shaft bottoms out at over down. Their LaRonde mine expansion sees open stopes down to a depth of over, the deepest longhole open stopes in the world.
The deepest platinum-palladium mines in the world are on the Merensky Reef, in South Africa, with a resource of 203 million troy ounces, currently worked to approximately depth.
