Swiss bore hole for world’s longest tunnel

Gotthard Base Tunnel

Jon Boyd, Oct 18, 10.

Last week, Swiss workers bored through the last piece of alpine rock to create the hole for the thirty-five mile Gotthard Base Tunnel, the longest in the world, according to MSNBC. The Gotthard Base Tunnel, which will take another five years to finish, will facilitate a freight rail line, replacing many trucks currently traveling the mountain roads, as well as high-speed passenger rail, says MSNBC:

The new Gotthard Base Tunnel is seen as an important milestone in the creation of a high-speed transportation network connecting all corners of Europe.

First conceived in 1947 by engineer Eduard Gruner, it will allow millions of tons of goods that are currently transported through the Alps on heavy trucks to be shifted onto the rails, particularly on the economically important link between the Dutch port of Rotterdam and Italy’s Mediterranean port of Genoa.

The tunnel also aims to reduce the damage that heavy trucks are inflicting on Switzerland’s pristine Alpine landscape.

Peter Fueglistaler, director of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport, called Friday “a day of joy for Switzerland.”

“We are not a very emotional people but if we have the longest tunnel in the world, this also for us is very, very emotional” he told The Associated Press.

Some 2,500 workers have spent nearly 20 years smashing through the rock beneath the towering Gotthard massif, including the 8,200-foot Piz Vatgira (Vatgira Peak).

When the $10 billion tunnel opens for rail traffic in 2017, it will replace Japan’s 33.5-mile Seikan Tunnel as the world’s longest — excluding aqueducts — and let passenger and cargo trains pass under the Alps at speeds of up to 155 mph on their way from Germany to Italy.

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(Image taken by Daniel Schwen on August 28th 2004.)