Gotthard Road Tunnel

The St. Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland is the third longest road tunnel in the world (the longest is Lærdalstunnelen, which is 24.51 km (15.3 miles), and the second longest is the Zhongnanshan Tunnel). It runs from Göschenen in the north to Airolo in the south, and is just under 16.4 kilometres (10.5 miles) in length below the St. Gotthard Pass. It links two Swiss cantons: Uri to the north and Ticino to the south.

This road forms part of the shortest road link from Hamburg, Germany to Sicily in Italy.

History

The widely used motorway tunnel was opened on September 5, 1980, in response to the automobile boom in Switzerland and the popularity of Italy as a travel resort.

On Friday, October 24, 2001, a collision of two trucks created a fire in the tunnel, killing eleven and injuring many more, the smoke and gases produced by the fires being the main cause of death. The effects of even small fires in a confined space like a tunnel are extremely serious because, for example, carbon monoxide is highly toxic at very low concentrations. The tunnel was closed for two months after the accident for repair and cleaning up.

Rail tunnels

The St. Gotthard railway tunnel, close but separate from the expressway tunnel, handles rail traffic on the north-south line in Switzerland. It was opened 1882. In this category, however, it is no longer the record-holder. The Seikan Tunnel in Japan and the Channel tunnel between the United Kingdom and France are both in excess of 50 km (30 mi).

Under construction since 2002 and estimated to be completed by about 2016, the Gotthard Base Tunnel (a second rail tunnel), will be longer than the first one (57 km) and be put into operation for the use of express trains travelling from northern Switzerland to the Ticino area and beyond. [Bilger, Burkhard, "The Long Dig: Getting through the Swiss Alps the hard way", "The New Yorker", September 15th, 2008]

Road conditions

The St. Gotthard tunnel forms part of the A2 motorway in Switzerland, running south from Basel through the tunnel down to Chiasso on the border with Italy.

Traffic flows through only one tunnel, which carries traffic both ways, with each direction allocated only one lane. The tunnel's speed limit is 80 km/h (50 mph).

The tunnel is heavily used and often home to traffic jams both on the north and south ends. In contrast, another tunnel through the Alps, the San Bernardino road tunnel in the canton of Graubünden further east, is relatively uncongested and shorter. The road taken on that expressway is actually longer than the direct route through the St. Gotthard tunnel.

In the tunnel, a distance of 150 metres (500 feet) between each truck is enforced.

Second road tunnel proposals

Efforts to build a second tunnel have failed, blocked by political resistance. The Alpine Initiative "for the protection of the Alpine region from transit traffic", which raised barriers against road tunnel construction, was initially blocked by the Swiss Parliament. However, a February 1994 Alpine Initiative passed (by 52% of voters), and Parliament upheld the referendum twice through the 1990s. The pro-tunnel Avanti Initiative brought a referendum to voters in February 2004, which was rejected (by 62.8% of voters). [http://www.alpine-initiative.ch/e/History.asp, Alpine Initiative, History, accessed 2007-09-05.]

References

External links

* [http://www.gotthard-strassentunnel.ch/ The official information page of the Gotthard Tunnel] (in German and Italian, few pages also in English)
* [http://www.gotthardtunnel.ch/ More statistics and facts (in German)] (as well as info on a second expressway tunnel)