Ismailia Road Tunnels are twin tube tunnels passing the new and old Suez Canals in Ismailia city of Egypt.

The twin tunnels were constructed using Tunnel Boring method with 2 Tunnel Boring Machines each of 12.6m cutting diameter reaching 53m below sea level.

The two parallel tunnels were connected by 4 Cross-Passages (CP) each one Km distance, where personnel can access the other tunnel in case of an emergency.

These Cross Passages are ~13m long & 5m in diameter.

Due to high hydrostatic water pressure of 5 bars in mostly sandy soil, Ground Freezing has been adopted & the excavation was carried out in the protection of 2 m thick frozen bodies.

The frozen bodies served two main purposes during the excavation process of each cross passage:

- As structural elements “temporary excavation support”

- Providing water tightness