Pinera Tunnel

The Pinera Tunnel was a railroad tunnel on the Adelaide-Nairne Railway in the Adelaide Hills that existed from 1883 to 1928.

History

The former No. 5 Tunnel was a rail tunnel on the Belair railway line located beneath Main Road that connects the Adelaide Hills suburbs of Belair and Blackwood. It was the first ever railroad tunnel constructed in the Adelaide Hills region. Completed in 1881 as part of the first stage of the Adelaide-Nairne Railway, the tunnel was replaced by a bridge in 1928.
On 31 January 1928, the tunnel was the site of a fatal rail construction accident while rail duplication work was underway and the tunnel was being replaced with a cutting. Six workers were killed when an estimated 150 tons of earth fell onto the tunnel site during heavy afternoon rains.

Construction

All tunnels built along the Adelaide and Nairne Railway in the early 1880s were of the same specification being high and wide. The tunnel was lined with bricks that were made from clay excavated from an adjoining quarry and nearby railway cuttings, and fired at brickworks immediately south of the No. 3 Tunnel in Eden Hills