In response to the automobile boom in Switzerland and other things, the Swiss government gave approval in July 1969 for the construction of the 17-kilometre (11 mi) Gotthard Road tunnel. World’s longest rail tunnel to open in Switzerland Measuring 57 km in length, situated 2.3km deep under the Alps and having cost €11bn to complete, … Switzerland celebrated the opening of the world’s longest train tunnel, a 17-year project that cuts through the Alps and cost €11 billion to construct - but all anyone’s talking about is its ridiculous opening ceremony. All three tunnels bypass the Gotthard Pass, an important trade route since the 13th century. [14], This article is about the 1980 road tunnel. It started operations in December 2016. Last modified on Sun 4 Mar 2018 07.47 EST. It has four large ventilation shafts and an additional side gallery between 10 and 18 metres (33 and 59 ft) from the main tunnel, having its own independent ventilation system in order to facilitate the cutting of a second tunnel, should future traffic levels require it. The world's longest tunnel opens in Switzerland The world’s longest train tunnel officially opened on Wednesday under the Swiss Alps, aiming to ease transit in the heart of Europe. At the turn of the last century, the world’s then-longest railway tunnel connected Switzerland and Italy below the Alps. The Alpine Initiative "for the protection of the Alpine region from transit traffic", which raised barriers against road tunnel construction, was initially blocked by the Swiss Parliament. It will provide a high-speed rail connection under the Alps between northern and southern Europe. The project took 17 years to build and cost 12.2bn Swiss francs. It was opened in 1882. Antwerp was originally described as a “Dutch sea port”, but it is, of course, in Belgium. [5], In March 2014, the Swiss Government approved a bill to allow the building of a second road tunnel. In Switzerland, the hope is that the Gotthard base tunnel will not only boost the trade route between northern and southern Europe but also shift alpine traffic from road to rail and reduce CO2 emissions, thus helping to protect the ecosystem. T he world’s longest and deepest railway tunnel was opened under the Swiss Alps at an extravagant opening ceremony on Wednesday.. At 35.5 miles, … • This article was amended on 1 June 2016. The Gotthard Base Tunnel is located in Switzerland. Road Tunnels in Switzerland (& FL) > 2000 m Tunnels en Suisse – Gallerie in Svizzera – Tunnels aus Schweiz Edited by: Eugenio A. Merzagora 28 th revision - December 2011 ... "The World's longest Tunnel Page" Switzerland has inaugurated Gotthard Base Tunnel, staging a massive celebration to honor the longest and deepest railway tunnel in the world. The Gotthard Tunnel is the core and culminating point of the A2 motorway in Switzerland, running south from Basel through the tunnel down to Chiasso on the border with Italy. (Confusion over whether petrol or diesel was in the truck that was hit stems from a mistranslation of the word "diesel" in the English version of the original article in German. Trains will be able to cross the Gotthard massif at a maximum speed of 250km/h, taking about 20 minutes. Show 0 comments 1 /1 World's longest tunnel completed in Switzerland will save an hour on Measuring 57 km in length, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is the longest railway tunnel in the world. Teams excavated 28.2m tonnes of rock in the process. The construction for what is now the world's longest tunnel began all the way back in 1996. Sixty-five per cent of the project’s construction costs were funded by a tax on heavy duty vehicles, of which about 3,600 used the old tunnel on an average day. A proposed 80km underground train link connecting Helsinki in Finland and Tallin in Estonia is awaiting approval. At 57km, the Gotthard base tunnel is 3km longer than the world’s current record-holder, the Seikan rail tunnel that links Japan’s two largest islands, Honshu and Hokkaido, and 7km longer than the Channel tunnel that connects England and France. The 35-mile Gotthard Basel Tunnel is a high-speed rai... After nearly 20 years of construction, the world's longest rail tunnel opened in Switzerland Wednesday. x ad by gifs.com Construction is scheduled to start in 2020, with the cost estimated at almost CHF 3 billion. Further usage of both tunnels was subject to a popular referendum that was held in February 2016, where it was approved. All rights reserved. “We can show that Switzerland is a reliable partner for Brussels and the whole of Europe, more reliable even than some of its member states,” the president of the Christian Democratic party told Neue Zürcher Zeitung. The journey takes about 13 minutes by car, the maximum speed being 80 km/h. In contrast, another tunnel through the Alps, the San Bernardino road tunnel as part of the A13 in the canton of Graubünden further east, is relatively uncongested and shorter. [citation needed], Construction on a second, parallel road tunnel was started. Without ventilation, the temperature inside the tunnel system is 46C (115F). In the process, almost 30m tonnes of rock and soil were transported from the massif’s inner core to the surface via a giant purpose-built lift. Available for everyone, funded by readers, Regular passenger trains start using the 35-mile Gotthard Base tunnel, which took 17 years to build, The ceremony for the opening of the Gotthard base tunnel in Switzerland on Wednesday includes a blessing, acrobats, music and dance depicting Alpine culture and history, Swiss president says he hopes Gotthard base tunnel below Alps will help ‘join the people and the economies’ of Europe. The tunnel's speed limit is 80 km/h (50 mph). The tunnel rises from the northern portal at Göschenen (1,080 m (3,540 ft)) and the culminating point is reached after approximately 8 kilometres (5.0 mi). At time of construction, in 1980, it was the longest road tunnel in the world; it is currently the fifth-longest. It runs under the Swiss Alps and has a depth of 2,300 meters, making it the deepest tunnel on the planet. [6], On 24 October 2001, a collision of two trucks created a fire in the tunnel, killing eleven and injuring many more, the smoke and gases produced by the fires being the main cause of death. Heavily used, the tunnel often has traffic jams during peak holiday seasons over Easter and summer, on both the north and south ends. This second tunnel can be built out to a full road tunnel, allowing four lanes of traffic. For instance, carbon monoxide is highly toxic at very low concentrations; having this trapped in a confined space allows concentrations to build well beyond a fatal level. Festivities with 1,200 invited guests, expected to cost about €8m, will mark the opening of the rail tunnel, which will be mainly used for further test journeys until commencing regular service in December 2016. The tunnel cost about £6bn and was entirely funded by the Swiss authorities. The tunnel would be longer than any existing road tunnel, and would provide a year-round road link from the Swiss Plateau to southern Switzerland, and from northern to southern Europe as well, to be used in place of the Gotthard Pass. Once fully functional, the tunnel will not just slice 45 minutes off the journey time between Zurich and Lugano, but also form a central building block of the so-called Rhine-Alp corridor that stretches from the sea ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp via Germany’s industrial heartland down to the port of Genoa in Italy. The pro-tunnel Avanti Initiative brought a referendum to voters in February 2004, which was rejected (by 62.8%). Artists perform during the grand opening for the tunnel, the world's longest and deepest rail tunnel. Gotthard Base Tunnel Currently the longest and most expensive rail tunnel in the world, the Gotthard Base Tunnel opened for service on 11 Dec. 2016. With a total length of 35.5 miles, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is the longest railway tunnel in the world. The Chinese government plans to build a tunnel underneath the Bohai straits measuring 123km – more than twice the length of the Gotthard base tunnel – to reduce journey times between the port cities of Dalian and Yantai from eight hours to 45 minutes. [5] The tunnel was built roughly parallel to the old railway tunnel, with portals a few hundred metres away from those of the railway. However, June 1 st will witness a new era of the cross-Europe traveling with the inauguration of the world’s longest railway tunnel in Switzerland. Despite reports that petrol was the cause of the fire, the truck that was hit was a diesel truck. It remains a single bore tunnel with just one lane operating in each direction. A statue of St. Barbara, protector of miners stands in the NEAT Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest and deepest rail tunnel, during its official opening in Amsteg, Switzerland June 1, 2016. On this guided tour, a window in the Amsteg access gallery permits a direct view of trains rushing by. In Europe, the next alpine mega-tunnelling project is in progress, with a 55km tunnel underneath the Brenner designed to connect Innsbruck in Austria and Bolzano in Italy. With a maximum elevation of 1,175 metres (3,855 ft)[3] at the tunnel's highest point, the A2 motorway has the lowest maximum elevation of any direct north-south road through the Alps.[4]. The pass road culminates about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above the tunnel, at a height of 2,106 metres (6,909 ft), and is only passable in summer. The world's longest and deepest rail tunnel has officially opened in Switzerland, after almost two decades of construction work. Carbon monoxide can trigger a clinical response at a level as low as 100 parts per million. World's longest rail tunnel begins regular service in Switzerland, World's longest rail tunnel opens with theatrical parade – video, Human cost of the 35-mile Swiss rail tunnel, European leaders open world's longest rail tunnel in Switzerland, World’s longest rail tunnel to open in Switzerland. [13] The reconstruction would have lasted for several years in any variant – one variant would push the traffic over the mountain pass, another proposed to load the vehicles onto trains with a new terminal, a third would close the tunnel for several months every year over time range of a decade. Prior to the opening of the tunnel, cars were transported through the nearby railway tunnel on car shuttle trains. In this category it is no longer the record-holder. [2] Although it is a motorway tunnel, part of the A2 from Basel to Chiasso, it consists of only one bidirectional tube with two lanes. A February 1994 Alpine Initiative passed (with 52% of the vote), and Parliament upheld the referendum twice through the 1990s. The world’s longest tunnel officially opened on Wednesday, with the trailblazing rail passage under the Swiss Alps aiming to ease transit through the heart of Europe. SWARCO equipped the Gotthard road tunnel (motorway A2) with new hardware and software – efficiency increased with EffiGo integration into the operational management level … Images highlighting some of the more unusual moments of the opening ceremony for the Gotthard base tunnel in Switzerland. Four giant drill heads were used to cut a path through the mountain range. The Seikan Tunnel in Japan and the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France are both in excess of 50 km (31 mi). Efforts to do this have failed, blocked by political resistance. Image Source: Reuters The extensive 35.5 miles long tunnel, named the Gotthard Base Tunnel snakes underneath the Alps, connecting the Swiss valleys with the plains of North Italy.