Gotthard Base Tunnel, Europe’s biggest construction site
Monday, 28 February 2011 - 03:12 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Free Trade Association General
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The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is a railway tunnel beneath the Alps in Switzerland. With a route length of 57 km (35.4 mi) and a total of 151.84 km (94.3 mi) of tunnels, shafts and passages, it is the world’s longest rail tunnel, surpassing the undersea Seikan Tunnel in Japan.
The project consists of two single track tunnels. It is part of the AlpTransit project, also known as the New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA), which also includes the Lötschberg Base Tunnel between the cantons of Bern and Valais. It bypasses the 19th century Gotthardbahn, a winding mountain route across the Saint-Gotthard Massif, and establishes a direct route usable by high-speed rail and heavy freight trains.
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After 64 percent of Swiss voters accepted the AlpTransit project in a 1992 referendum, construction of the tunnel began in 1996. Boring operations in the eastern tunnel were completed on 15 October 2010 in a cut-through ceremony broadcast live on Swiss TV. When it opens for traffic in late 2017, the tunnel will cut the 3.5-hour travel time from Zürich to Milan by an hour and from Zürich to Lugano to 1 hour 40 minutes.
The two portals are near the villages of Erstfeld, Uri and Bodio, Ticino. Nearby are two other St. Gotthard Tunnels: the 1881 Gotthard Rail Tunnel and the 1980 Gotthard Road Tunnel.
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