This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Túnel de San Gotardo, de FCC Construcción

The Austrian subsidiary of FCC, Alpine, has carried out the construction of the two tunnels of only road

Tunnel of Saint Gotardo, of FCC Construction

Ricard Arís18/05/2012

15 May 2012

This is definitely one of the big infrastructures more complex of the European Union. A double tunnel of only steering that crosses the Alps, built by Alpine, Austrian subsidiary of FCC, with tuneladoras of more than eight metres of height. Of this form, will remain joined two near cities like Basilea and Milan and will communicate Swiss with the rail network European of high speed.

The Tunnel of Base of Saint Gotardo, of the new rail link through the Alps has a total length of 57 km, what turns him into the rail tunnel, under construction, longer of the world. The conjoint length of tunnels of the system rises to 153,5 km, including the stretches of service and connections between the two tubes. It is situated in the centre of Switzerland and discurre to 550 metres of average on the level of the mar. The put in service of the tunnel is foreseen for 2017.

The Tunnel of Base of Saint Gotardo, that crosses the Alps, has a length of 57 km.

For the construction of the structure, the tunnel has divided in five independent sections. Two of them, the designated like Faido (of 14 km) and Bodio (of 15 km of length) are being realised by the consortium, headed by the Austrian subsidiary of FCC, Alpine, that holds responsible of the realisation of the two tunnels of only road, the installations, the rail infrastructure and the construction of eleven kilometres of line in surface until the connection with the existent rail network.

The geology of the Tunnel of Base of Saint Gotardo is constituted predominantly by compact granites and gneis, with wide zones failed between the two facies. The maximum coating of the terrain on the tunnel is of 2.500 m.

The group of the work is constituted by a tunnel bitubo, of only road, with a distance between axles of 40 m and transversal connections each 300-325 m. Also they have foreseen two areas multifuncionales and of emergency (MFS), to lodge the complete rail team and for the evacuation of the passengers and the personnel of the train. These zones have been conceived to allow the step of the compositions of a tube to another, during the tasks of maintenance or eventualmente in the case of an emergency.

The excavation of these two sections of the tunnel carries out by means of tuneladoras of 8,80 m of diameter for the section of Bodio and of 9,50 m for the section of Faido.

The tunnel has been designed to create a fast connection, from Basilea to Milan and will communicate Swiss with the rail network European of high speed. When the tunnel was operative will duplicate the capacity of transport of commodities in the axis north-Swiss south, until reaching the 40 million tonnes, and the length of the trip between the cities of Zúrich and Milan will become of 2 hours and 40 minutes, around an hour less than in the actuality. The future trains of passengers will be able to cross the Alps to 250 km/h of maximum speed.