This is in Norwegian, so I'll try to explain very shortly for you non Norwegians.
http://www.kystverket.no/?did=9539664 (http://www.kystverket.no/?did=9539664)
It has for some time now, been an ongoing discussion of the needs of a ship tunnel through one of Norways most stormy places, Stadt. The most western part of Norway.
Stadt has been known to be a respected place by sailors, due to sudden changes in weather, strong winds, huge waves, currents and a rocky costline. To avoid losses of ships and lives (even delays cause to bad weather) it has been a debate for some years now, about building a tunnel big enough for ships (up to 16.000 brt) to pass trough. Kyrstverket (Norwegian Costal services) has been given a task from Fiskeridepartementet (Department of comersial fish industry) to explore different needs of the tunnel, and to create a ship simulator scenario of ships entering the tunnel enterance in different conditions. (weather, currents and so on...) The tests went well and they used the Norwegian Hurtigrute ship Trollfjord.
Tunnel meassures (old plans)
lengt 1.800 meters
width 23 meters
heigth 25 meters
depth 12 meters
This was for ships up to 5.000 brt
The new plans are for a tunnel is made for ships 3 times larger. For ships up to 16.000 brt (as the link under illustrates)
http://bayimg.com/haEeLaabC (http://bayimg.com/haEeLaabC)
(click on img to zoom)
The simulator
http://bayimg.com/HAeEMaaBC (http://bayimg.com/HAeEMaaBC)
Norwegian pilots getting ready to test the scenario
This is mabye an idea for a scenario in SS09/10?
Reguards