Tunnel Vision

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OME OF THE FINEST ASPHALT IN THE UK can be found in a Victorian railway tunnel in Northamptonshire. Just a few weeks ago the final 2.7km of black stuff was laid in Catesby Tunnel by a company that usually surfaces race circuits, creating a unique test facility. Originally built in the 1890s to speed goods and people to London by rail, Catesby Tunnel was abandoned in the 1960s but has now been restored and repurposed by a group called Aero Research Partners Limited (ARP), primarily as an affordable alternative to traditional wind-tunnel testing, though it could be put to many more uses.