Underground streets, the roadways !

Even if you do not believe me: This picture does not show a subway in one of the big cities, this picture shows a roadway as it is common in the German hard coal mining industry - and do not forget: It is situated in a depth of about 1.000 metres !

Because of the fact that it is not enough to arrive underground through a shaft, we move horizontally now.

There are lots of items to be transported underground: Miners, material, gas and last but not least the hard coal. But in order to do that, the corresponding infrastructure is required. The infrastructure consists of the roadways in which is transported what I mentionned before. Every colliery has about 100 kilometres of underground roadways - more than most of us drive by car every day.

In the picture the division concerning the space in the roadways can be seen very clearly: In the middle there are the rails, next to them is the space for the pedestrians. Under the ceiling all materials requiring pipes like water, compressed air etc. are transported FROM the shafts to the places where they are needed. But there is another direction, as well: Liquids coming from the coal production and - this is very important - the methane gas extracted from the coal seams are transported back TO the shafts. From there they are brought to the surface and cleaned or used for the generation of energy, like in the case of the methane gas. Even if you think that this does not make sense, but some collieries are able to supply themselves and their neighbourhoods with electricity and heating.

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