Rimutaka Tunnel The first shot was fired in 1948 when the Public Works Department started the tunnel with bores of at the western end and at the eastern end. A contract for completing the tunnel was let to a consortium of Morrison Knudsen Inc. and Downer and Company on 7 May 1951. The work commenced at the west end in July 1951 and at the east end in August. The contract was expected to be completed in four years, but the headings met on 20 April 1954 with the concrete lining finished a month later. New Zealand Railways took possession of the
Deliktaş Tunnel end of 2011, all construction works were finished. Following the installation of signalization facilities, and completing the test runs with freight trains, the tunnel was put into service in late 2012. The tunnel was drilled by the New Austrian Tunnelling method (NATM). With its length of , the Deliktaş Tunnel is Turkey's longest single track railway tunnel. The tunnel is wide and has a clearance of . It is also the only railway tunnel of the country, which features built-in lighting, ventilation and firefighting facilities. The automated lighting system controls tunnel lights installed at every through motion detectors. According to