{"id":3492,"date":"2026-07-23T00:42:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guiailhadamadeira.com\/longest-tunnel-in-madeira\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T00:42:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:42:55","slug":"o-tunel-mais-longo-da-madeira","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guiailhadamadeira.com\/pt\/longest-tunnel-in-madeira\/","title":{"rendered":"O t\u00fanel mais longo da Madeira: o T\u00fanel do Faial\u2013Santana"},"content":{"rendered":"

The longest tunnel in Madeira is the Faial–Santana tunnel, which runs for 3,168 metres<\/strong> beneath the mountains of the island’s north-east. It is the centrepiece of the Faial–Santana expressway — a chain of five tunnels totalling about 7.2 km — and for years it held the record as the longest road tunnel in all of Portugal. If you are driving the north coast, this is the tunnel you will remember: more than three kilometres of continuous rock between one green valley and the next.<\/p>\n

\"Um
Madeira’s longest tunnels turn hours of mountain road into minutes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Qual \u00e9 o t\u00fanel mais longo da Madeira?<\/h2>\n

O t\u00fanel mais longo da ilha \u00e9 o Faial–Santana tunnel, at 3,168 metres<\/strong>. It is the largest of the five tunnels on the Faial–Santana expressway (Via Expresso), which was built to connect the villages of the rugged north coast to the rest of the island. The tunnel is equipped with emergency lay-bys and cross-passages every few hundred metres, as required for tunnels of this length.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
T\u00fanel<\/th>\nComprimento<\/th>\nOnde<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Faial – Santana<\/strong><\/td>\n3 168 m<\/strong><\/td>\nCosta nordeste (a mais extensa da Madeira)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Encumeada (Serra de Água – Rosário)<\/td>\n~3 100 m<\/td>\nMontanhas centrais<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Machico – Caniçal<\/td>\n~2 100 m<\/td>\nLeste (de dois tubos)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

Ser\u00e1 que j\u00e1 foi o t\u00fanel mais longo de Portugal?<\/h2>\n

Yes — and this is where many guides get it wrong. For years the Faial–Santana tunnel really era<\/em> o t\u00fanel rodovi\u00e1rio mais longo de Portugal. Isso mudou em Maio de 2016<\/strong>, quando o Marão Tunnel<\/strong> opened on the mainland’s A4 motorway, between Amarante and Vila Real. At roughly 5 665 metros<\/strong>, the Marão Tunnel is now Portugal’s longest by a wide margin.<\/p>\n

So the accurate way to say it in 2026 is this: the Faial–Santana tunnel is the o t\u00fanel mais longo da Madeira<\/strong>, and it was Portugal’s longest until the mainland Marão Tunnel took the crown in 2016. On an island of just 741 km², a 3.1 km tunnel remains a remarkable feat.<\/p>\n

O outro gigante: o t\u00fanel da Encumeada<\/h2>\n

Logo a seguir vem o T\u00fanel de Encumeada<\/strong>, roughly 3,100 metres long, which cuts through the central mountain spine between Serra de Água and Rosário. It reportedly cost in the region of €80 million to build — a reminder of just how expensive it is to tunnel through Madeira’s dense volcanic rock. Together with Faial–Santana, it turned journeys that once took hours over hairpin mountain passes into quick, straight drives.<\/p>\n

\"Entrada
Madeira has more than 150 road tunnels — driving here means constant mountain, tunnel, ocean, tunnel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Driving through Madeira’s longest tunnels<\/h2>\n

Conduzir nos t\u00faneis longos \u00e9 f\u00e1cil e seguro, mas algumas dicas podem ajudar:<\/p>\n