Here at Sotham Engineering we are always on the look-out for examples of exemplary engineering and construction. We have been fascinated, then, to hear about the completion of the Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland, now the world’s longest rail tunnel – running a full 57kms (35 miles) in length deep beneath the Alps.
The new tunnel was unveiled to much fanfare earlier this month and will now undergo testing before being opened to the public in December should all go to plan.
The tunnel is expected to reduce the journey time between Zurich and Lugano by 45 minutes. However, the bigger picture is that the new route enables the completion of the so-called Rhine-Alp corridor – a freight train link that runs from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, stretching from the Dutch sea port of Rotterdam via Germany’s industrial heartland down to the port of Genoa in Italy. It is hoped this new route will take much of the freight travelling through Switzerland off the road and onto rail, cutting emissions and pollution.
The Gotthard Tunnel is truly a masterpiece of engineering. It has taken 17 years to dig because of the changing nature of the rock being bored. And because of its depth – 2.3kms below the mountains, making it the world’s deepest tunnel – reinforced steel rings have been inserted along its length to stop it from collapsing in on itself.
Its completion signals the realisation of an idea first conceived 69 years ago when Swiss engineer Eduard Gruner came up with the concept of a tunnel through the Gotthard Mountain. And while the Gotthard Tunnel now holds the record as the longest rail tunnel, having outstripped Japan’s 54km Seikan Tunnel, it is unlikely that it will maintain this status for long.
In China, for example, ambitious plans are being drawn up for a 76mile underwater tunnel at Bohai Bay. It has also been reported that China is considering plans to build a 125mile undersea tunnel crossing the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska.
Image By Hannes Ortlieb (Diskussion) (Own work Original text: selbst fotografiert) [CC BY-SA 3.0 de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en), CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons