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Up until 1981, all plans to build a Channel Tunnel
had failed. It was only when the British and French governments of the
time started to serious commitments into building a tunnel.
1981 - An Anglo-French summit was held to
explore new tunnel ideas.
1982 - Intergovernmental talks agreed that a seven meter wide
tunnel should be built with a second being added at a later date.
1984 - The building of a tunnel was agreed in principle at the
Anglo-French Summit. Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher gave her
full backing to the project but insisted that the financing could not
come from government funds.
1985 - Applications were invited from the private sector to
submit plans for the building of the tunnel.
1986 - The Anglo-French Treaty was signed and the plans submitted
by 'Channel Tunnel Group' consortium were accepted.
1987 - All the relevant legislation was completed, the Treaty was
verified and construction of the tunnel began in November.
The design, planning and construction of the tunnel was to be carried
out by ten construction companies, five from France and five from the
UK. There was also support from British and France banks.
The British Team
Balfour Beatty Construction, Costain UK, George Wimpey International,
Taylor Woodrow Construction, Tarmac Construction, Midland Bank and
National Westminster Bank
Collectively, these companies are known as CTG or the Channel Tunnel
Group and were responsible for the building of the English terminals and
the construction of the tunnels from Shakespeare Cliffe.
The French Team
Bouygues, Dumez, Societe Auxiliaire d'Enterprises, Societe Generale
d'Enterprises Sainrapt et Brice, Spie Batignolles, Banque Nationale de
Paris, Credit Lyonnais and Banque Indosuez
This group of companies were collectively known as France-Manche. They
were responsible for the building of the French terminals and the
construction of the tunnels from Puits de Sangette
The Channel Tunnel Group and France-Manche formed an Anglo-French
organisation called Transmanche-Link or TML.
 TML
was to design and construct the Channel Tunnel. However, in order to
finance the work, a private Anglo-French organisation called Eurotunnel
was formed to raise the necessary funding for the project. In order to
make this possible, the British and French governments awarded an
operating concession to Eurotunnel which allows them to operate the
tunnel until 2052. The profits would then be used to repay loans and pay
dividend payments to shareholders. Eurotunnel then absorbed the CTG/F-M
group and agreed with TML to carry out the construction work.
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