- Gotthard Base Tunnel
The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is a
railway tunnel under construction inSwitzerland . With a planned length of 57 km (35 miles) and a total of 153.5 km (95 miles) of tunnels, shafts and passages planned, it will be the longest tunnel (of all railway and road tunnels) in the world upon completion, ahead of the current record holder, theSeikan Tunnel (connecting the Japanese islands ofHonshū andHokkaidō ). The project is designed to feature two separate tunnels containing one track each. The tunnel is part of the SwissAlpTransit project, also known as "New Railway Link through the Alps NRLA" which also includes theLötschberg Base Tunnel between the cantons ofBerne andValais . Like the Lötschberg tunnel, it is intended to bypass winding mountain routes and establish a direct route suitable for high speed rail and heavy freight trains. On completion it is expected to decrease the current 3.5 hours travel time fromZürich toMilan by one hour. The two portals will be near the villages ofErstfeld , Canton Uri andBodio , CantonTicino .Completion has been projected for 2015 but due to delays the tunnel may not be completed before 2018. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6471241.stm BBC News - Swiss dig world's longest tunnel] ] Moreover, according to a TSR programme, "
Temps Present " aired on25 May 2007 , rail links with the Italian network are far from assured, due to congestion from freight trains avoiding theMilan eseconurbation to the detriment of passenger trains.Nearby are two more St. Gotthard Tunnels: the 1881
Gotthard Rail Tunnel and the 1980Gotthard Road Tunnel .Background
The route over Gotthard Pass or one of its tunnels is one of the most important passages through the
Alps on the north-south axis inEurope . Traffic has increased more than tenfold since 1980 and the existing road and rail tunnels are at their limits. In order for a faster and flatter passage through theSwiss Alps , the Swiss voters have decided to build this tunnel cutting through the Gotthardmassif at nearly ground level, 600 metres (≈1980 feet) below the existing railway tunnel. On the current track, theGotthardbahn , only limited freight trains with a maximum weight of 2,000 tons using two or threelocomotive s are able to pass through the narrow mountain valleys and through spiral tunnels climbing up to the portals of the old tunnel at a height of 1,100 meters (≈3,600 feet) above sea level. Once the new tunnel is completed, standard freight trains of up to 4,000 tons will be able to pass this natural barrier as easily as if the Alps did not exist. Because of the ever increasing international truck traffic, the Swiss voted onFebruary 20 ,1994 for a shift in transportation policy ("Traffic Transfer Act", enacted onOctober 8 ,1999 ). The goal of both the law (and the goal of the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which is one of the means by which the law will achieve its objective), is to transport trucks, trailers and freight containers from southernGermany to northernItaly and vice versa by train to relieve the already overused roads (intermodal freight transport and so called rolling highway where the entire truck is being transported), and to meet the political requirement of shifting as much tonnage as possible from truck transport to train transport, as required by the 'Alpine Protection Act' of 1994.Passenger trains, on the other hand, will be able to travel as fast as 250 km/h (155 mph) through the new tunnels, reducing travel times for trans-alpine train trips by 50 minutes – and by one hour once the adjacent Zimmerberg and
Ceneri Base Tunnel s are completed.Construction
"AlpTransit Gotthard AG" is responsible for construction . It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS). To cut construction time in half, four access tunnels were built so that the construction of the tunnel can start at four (now five) different sites simultaneously (Erstfeld, Amsteg, Sedrun, Faido and Bodio).
A tunnel system with two single-track tunnels is being built. The two rail tunnels are joined approximately every 325 metres (≈1070 feet) by connecting galleries. Trains can change tunnels in the two multifunction stations (MFS) at
Sedrun andFaido . These stations will house ventilation equipment and technical infrastructure, and will serve as emergency stops and evacuation routes upon tunnel completion.|
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-|Access to the site where the Sedrun station is being excavated is quite difficult. The station is only reachable by a level access tunnel of 1 km from the valley floor near Sedrun, where at the end two shafts lead 800 m (≈2,600 ft) straight down to the base tunnel level. A project to construct a functioningrailway station calledPorta Alpina at this site was put on indefinite hold in September 2007.Allocation of work
The contracts are being let in sections as follows:
*Erstfeld (section fromErstfeld toAmsteg ) 7.7km – two TBMs started boring the two tubes
*Amsteg (section fromAmsteg to north ofSedrun ) 11.4km – work being carried out by ARGE AGN (Strabag and Züblin Murer) [ [http://www.agn-amsteg.ch/ ARGE AGN website] ]
*Sedrun (section immediately north and south ofSedrun ) 6.8km – working being carried out by Transco (Bilfinger Berger ,Implenia , Frutiger and Pizzarotti) [ [http://www.transco-sedrun.ch/1_DEU_HTML.htm Transco website] ]
*Faido (section from south ofSedrun toFaido ) 14.6km – work being carried out by Consorzio TAT (Alpine Mayreder Bau, CSC Impresa costruzioni,Hochtief andImplenia andImpregilo ) [http://www.tat-ti.ch/ Consorzio TAT website] ]
*Bodio (section fromFaido toBodio ) 16.6km – work being carried out by Consorzio TAT (Alpine Mayreder Bau, CSC Impresa costruzioni,Hochtief ,Implenia andImpregilo )Facts and figures
*Length: 56.978 km (western tunnel) 57.091 km (eastern tunnel)
*Total length of all tunnels and shafts: 153.4 km*Begin of construction: 1993 (sounding drills), 1996 (preparations), 2003 (mechanical excavation)
*End of construction: 2016–2017
*Commissioning: 2015
*Total cost: CHF 8.035 billion (US$6.428 billion)
*Trains/day: 200–250
*Volume of excavated rock: 24 million tons (13.3 million m³ or the equiv. of 5 Gizeh-pyramids)
*Number of tunnel boring machines (TBM): 4 (2 southbound from Amsteg to Sedrun, 2 northbound from Bodio to Faido and Sedrun, section from Erstfeld to Amsteg will also be built with TBM, maybe the same used for Amsteg-Sedrun)
**Total length: 440 m (incl. back-up equipment)
**Total weight: 3,000 tons
**Effect: 5 MWatt
**Max. excav. daily: 25–30 m (in excellent rock conditions)
**Total excav. length by TBM: about 45 km
**Manufacturer:Herrenknecht ,Schwanau , Germany{| class="wikitable"
-! Year ! Month ! Completed so far! % of the total 153.4 km
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2004 || July ||align="right"|52.34 km ||align="right"| 34.1%
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2005 || June ||align="right"|74.59 km ||align="right"| 48.6%
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2006 || June ||align="right"| 94.10 km ||align="right"| 61.3%
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2007 || June ||align="right"| 103.67 km ||align="right"| 67.6%
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2008 || March ||align="right"| 108.02 km ||align="right"| 70.4%
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2008 || April ||align="right"| 109 km ||align="right"| 71%
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2008 || July ||align="right"| 113.2 km ||align="right"| 73.8%
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2008 || August ||align="right"| 115.2 km ||align="right"| 75.1%
-References
ee also
*
AlpTransit
*Lötschberg Base Tunnel
*Treno Alta Velocità
*List of tunnels by length
*List of tunnels by location External links
* [http://www.alptransit.ch/pages/e/index.php Alptransit Gotthard AG – Official project site]
* [http://www.alptransit.ch/pages/img/projekt/The_new_Gotthard_rail_link.pdf PDF-File issued by Alptransit Gotthard AG describing the entire project]
* [http://www.atlascopco.com/websites/acgroup/acgroup.nsf/docs/Gotthard+base+tunnel Atlas Copco – The Longest Tunnel in the World]
* [http://www.hbi.ch/media/pdf/publikationen/Paper_TMI_2002_v0.8.pdf Study on the optional Use of Jet Fans in the Gotthard Base Tunnel near the Portals to support the Emergency Ventilation]
* [http://www.visiun-porta-alpina.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/Home/Dokumente/broschure_porta_alpina.pdf Brochure for the Porta Alpina project] (.pdf file, in German).
* [http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,454843,00.html Overall project writeup, by SpiegelOnline, plus a proposed tourist elevator (Dec, 2006)]Footnotes
*TSR [http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSect=500000#bcid=502890;vid=7857769 "Gotthard: From Dream to Nightmare"] "Temps Present"
May 24 2007 - In French
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