Now that's a tunnel

[SeaCat]

The Swiss just finished drilling the longest tunnel in the world. (57 Kilometers long.) This is going to be a rail tunnel under the Swiss Alps and isn't slated to be opened for another couple of years.

I was just looking at some of the pictures of the Borer and am impressed, that thing is huge.

Cat

 

[Handley_Page]

The Swiss just finished drilling the longest tunnel in the world. (57 Kilometers long.) This is going to be a rail tunnel under the Swiss Alps and isn't slated to be opened for another couple of years.

I was just looking at some of the pictures of the Borer and am impressed, that thing is huge.

Cat

Any chance of a decent link, Cat, please?

 

[trysail]

Seriously, seriously cool. There are some things that the Swiss do better than anybody else in the world. Tunneling is one of 'em.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101015/ap_on_re_eu/eu_switzerland_world_s_longest_tunnel
________________________________

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=abYeUCTrZXkk

‘Sissi’ Breaks Through to World’s Longest Rail Tunnel
By Paul Verschuur and Carolyn Bandel

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The world’s longest railroad tunnel moved a step closer to completion as Swiss drilling crews sliced across the final 1.8 meters (6 feet) of rock in a ceremony broadcast live on nationwide television.

Tunnel-drilling machine “Sissi” reached the final breakthrough on the Faido side, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, around 2:17 p.m. today in the presence of Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger.

Drilling and blasting on the 57-kilometer (35-mile) tunnel linking Erstfeld in German-speaking central Switzerland and Bodio in the Italian-speaking south began in 1996. The tunnel is scheduled for completion in 2017 at an estimated cost of 18.7 billion Swiss francs ($19.7 billion). It will be the world’s longest underground rail link, beating the 53.9-kilometer Seikan Tunnel in Japan.

“With this tunnel, we are helping to build Europe’s infrastructure,” Leuenberger said at a ceremony in which the tunnel was blessed. “We are helping to shape our continent sustainably and in solidarity by pushing ahead with the transfer of traffic from our roads to the rails.”

Trains will be able to speed through the tunnel at 250 kilometers an hour, shortening the four-hour train journey between Zurich and Milan by a quarter.

‘Important Connection’
Michael Reiterer, the European Commission’s ambassador to Switzerland who attended the ceremony, called the tunnel an “important connection between north and south.”

The Gotthard link through Switzerland has been one of the most vital links between northern and southern Europe since a 15-kilometer rail tunnel that took a higher route across the Alps was completed in 1881. About 200 people died during that project, including its Swiss chief, Louis Favre, and four laborers who were shot by police to end a strike.

The new tunnel is being built using a combination of blasting and 450-meter-long drilling machines. It will have two tubes, each with a single rail track and cross-linked in 176 places to provide emergency escape routes. Authorities haven’t yet decided what to do with its 129-year-old predecessor. Eight miners have died since the tunneling began.

 

[SeaCat]

Any chance of a decent link, Cat, please?

Sure, hold on a second.

Here ya go.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,723407,00.html

Cat

 

[mythtrav16]

Seriously, seriously cool. There are some things that the Swiss do better than anybody else in the world. Tunneling is one of 'em.

Well what do you expect? They've had enough practice. They've been digging tunnels through their cheese for centuries!

 

[Liar]

The Swiss just finished drilling the longest tunnel in the world. (57 Kilometers long.) This is going to be a rail tunnel under the Swiss Alps and isn't slated to be opened for another couple of years.

I was just looking at some of the pictures of the Borer and am impressed, that thing is huge.

Cat

Was just gonna post and say "meh, the channel tunnel must be way longer". Then I looked it up. Only 50 km.

Remnids me that I live in a country or pretty vast distances compared to continental Europe.

 

[jomar]

The video of the borer breaking through into the chamber with all the people and press was pretty cool.

 

[trysail]

http://en.rian.ru/images/16103/75/161037541.jpg​

 

[oggbashan]

Was just gonna post and say "meh, the channel tunnel must be way longer". Then I looked it up. Only 50 km.

Remnids me that I live in a country or pretty vast distances compared to continental Europe.

But the Channel Tunnel isn't one tunnel but three. Two rail tunnels and a service tunnel between them.

Og

 

[TE999]

This certainly is a boring subject, but in a good way.