The city's first Science and Technology Tunnel Museum has been completed and will open to the public soon, the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission announced yesterday.

Located at the conjunction of Fuxing Road E. and Zhonghua Road, the five-story museum will enable visitors to see how a double-deck tunnel -- a model built according to the scale of Fuxing Road E. Tunnel -- is constructed, officials said.

The museum also has interactive displays to allow visitors to experience the feeling of "driving along a virtual tunnel."

Perhaps the coolest feature is a one-way mirror that allows guests to view work on the under-construction Fuxing Road E. Tunnel. The museum overlaps the actual tunnel's monitoring center.

One engineer said he hoped the museum would help people appreciate the value of tunnels.

"We want visitors to feel excited about the city's tunnels and how they make life more convenient," said a senior engineer, surnamed Chen, of the Shanghai Tunnel Engineering and Rail Transit Design and Research Institute.

There will also be an electric map pinpointing the existing and planned connections, mostly tunnels, across the Huangpu River.

With 2,155 square meters of space, the museum was built with various tunnel-shaped corridors.

(Shanghai Daily July 1, 2004)