…Anyone interested in mega machines and projects, just go to a search engine and enter: Gotthard Rail Tunnel and pull up the site’s extensive web site. Awesome…! They are tunneling under the Alps with a double tunnel of roughly 35 plus miles in length.
It’s been under construction now for several years and believe excavation is about 66% complete now. It is an extensive, great site with on the site cameras, photos and the whole bit. It’s worth while to check it out for anyone with interest. Many years yet to projected finish. Billions and billions of dollars in cost to put it in place.
Trains are expected to pass through it at 250 km…speed. There are videos one can watch too.
As a side comment: The massive highway bridge at the Colorado River at Boulder Dam has web cams up one can eyeball work on that 2000’ bridge under construction across that 900’ deep canyon. It too is an awesome project. Heads up, to anyone intetested.
I’m not sure which web site you are referring to, as I was not able to find a site dedicated to the Gotthard Rail Tunnel. There are many sites that have information about the tunnel, including the site of Alptransit
If you log on to the Alptransit’s website, www.alptransit.ch/pages/e/ you can not only get details about the Gotthard Base Tunnel project on-line you can send for a report which describes the entire project. It also has a link to the website about the Lotschberg Base tunnel (www.bls.ch/unternehmen/index_e.html which is scheduled to open late this year.
Both are massive undertakings, and their objectives are to build tunnels through the Alps that are straight and flat to allow freight trains to move at near passenger train speeds.
We went to Switzerland last fall and my wife let me off the leash for a day so I wwent down to Airolo (the south portal of the Gotthard tunnel) to photograph the trains leaving the tunnel, but you I couldn’t get anywhere near the south portal from public property. I went to Goschenen next to photograph the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (former Furka Oberalp) entry from Andermatt, on the route of the Glacier Express. I noticed the Gotthard Base Tunnel construction project at Erstfeld from the train on the northbound trip to Zurich. I understand the Gotthard line is very busy with at least 1-2 passenger trains in each direction so I wonder what will happen to the existing tunnel once the new tunnel is open.
The plan is that the existing route is retained to increase capacity. I should imagine that it will be used by lighter freight traffic and slower passenger trains: the interchange at Goschenen with FO is important and well used.
…These tunnel projects appear to be awesome to me. 35 plus miles boring through rock is mindboggling. From one of the illustrations of the Gotthard project it appears to have a slight grade from somewhere inside down towards each entrance, I suppose to at least keep water flowing out of it where any exists.
Just keeping it ventilated must be a massive project on it’s own. I understand it is being bored from several “fronts”…and to survey to pin point meets and get it all together in alignment is some awesome achievement.