Gotthard: World’s Longest Rail Tunnel
June 3, 2016
A miner climbs across rock debris before a giant drill machine during construction of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland.
CREDIT: © Arnd Wiegmann, Reuters
On Wednesday, June 1, authorities in Switzerland announced the completion and official opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel. After 17 years of construction, the 35-mile (57-kilometer) railroad tunnel is now the world’s longest, surpassing Japan’s 33.5-mile (53.9-kilometer) Seikan rail tunnel. The Gotthard Base Tunnel, which will open to commercial traffic in December, is also the world’s deepest, running up to 1.4 miles (2.3 kilometers) underground. European heads of state inaugurated the tunnel on Wednesday, and a lucky few hundred people were chosen by lottery to be the first to travel the tunnel’s flat route beneath the Swiss Alps. This weekend, public festivities will take place at each end of the new tunnel—Erstfeld in the north and Bodio in the south—as well as at connecting train stations and other places.
The first blast on the $12-billion Gotthard Base Tunnel’s main shaft took place in 1999. Engineers then drilled, dug, and blasted through 73 different types of rock—and removed more than 31 million tons (28 million tonnes) of it—which was used in the concrete to build the tunnel. The long, difficult task claimed the lives of nine workers who are commemorated in a memorial marker at Erstfeld.
The record-setting Gotthard Base Tunnel runs 35 miles (57 kilometers) from Erstfeld to Bodio beneath the Swiss Alps.
Credit: WORLD BOOK map
After the tunnel is opened to traffic, Swiss authorities anticipate that about 260 freight trains and 65 passenger trains—running up to 150 miles (250 kilometers) per hour—will pass through the tunnel each day. The tunnel will cut nearly an hour off the 3 hour and 40 minute trip from Zurich to Milan, Italy—a very busy route. The tunnel will also remove thousands of road-clogging and polluting trucks from Switzerland’s highways.
