Celebrations after boring through to link 2 tunnels, St Gotthard new rail line (photo: AlpTransit)
St Gotthard rail tunnel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The miners digging the new St Gotthard train tunnel, which at 57 km will be the longest in the world, Tuesday 16 June celebrated the final boring of the 7.5 km Erstfeld-Amsteg leg, completing the eastern side of the tunneling project.
The new link makes a total of 133 km of the total 153 km of tunnel that are part of the project. Traffic in each direction has its own tunnel and there are also emergency areas. The event, a kilometre underground, provided the opportunity to praise work done six months ahead of schedule, with no major injuries.
Boring on the western end of the tunnel, between Sedrun, Graubuenden et Faido, Ticino, will be completed in 2011. The tunnel is expected to be operating by 2017.
The Alp Transit company is holding an open house for the public (advance registration needed) in Sedrun Saturday 20 June 2009.
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News story, GenevaLunch, 17 June 2009.
Filed under: Travel
Tags: Amsteg, Erstfeld, Faido, Graubuenden, rail tunnel, Sedrun, St Gotthard, Ticino
July 9th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
[...] Just a few weeks ago, Swiss engineers completed the eastern bore of the new rail St. Gotthard tunnel between Erstfeld and Amsteg. This is the second-to-last of five legs needed for the 153-kilometer long railway tunnel — due to open in 2017. [...]
July 16th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
[...] it turns out that the beautiful new train is too light for the train to be able to use the new Gotthard tunnel, currently under construction and scheduled to be operational in 2017. The new trains have already [...]