There San Gottardo base galleryone of the greatest engineering works of the 21st century with his 57 kilometers in lengthstill holds the primacy of longest railway tunnel in the world. The gallery is part of the new Transalpina railway (NFTA) and is a fundamental work for the railway connection between the North and Southern Europe: it is 7 km longer than the sleeve tunnel, which connects England to France, and has exceeded the previous prisoner of the record, the railway tunnel of Seikanopen in 1988.
After the first version of the tunnel built in the nineteenth century and the subsequent modernizations, the goal behind the project was ambitious: running under the Swiss Alps and Connect Milan In Zurich in just three hoursmaking rail transport faster, efficient and sustainable. The works, which began in 1999, they involved beyond 2,000 workers And they lasted several years, until Opening to passenger traffic on 11 December 2016.
To make it, they were employed over 4 million cubic meters of concrete and millions of cubic meters of rock were dug with machines TBM or “giants“. The total quantity of excavated rock is estimated to be equivalent to Ten times the material that constitutes the great pyramid of Gizain Egypt (28.2 million cubic meters). A huge amount but for this, it should be remembered, that the work also constitutes the first flat path through one of the large mountain chains of the planet and this leads it to also hold the primacy of deepest railway tunnel in the world, with a maximum depth of about 2,450 meters.
The mega opera consists of two long track pipes 57 kilometers and the total length of the tunnel system, including all transverse passages, access tunnels and wells, is of over 152 km – It is no coincidence that the cost was approximately 10 billion euros. Thanks to this gigantic project, passenger trains can cross the Alps with maximum speeds up to 250 km/h And the travel time between Zurich and Milan has been reduced by one hour reaching about three hours for the entire section, 20 minutes is instead the travel time of the only tunnel.
Today the Brennero basic gallery is under construction and this immense infrastructure is preparing to establish new records, starting with that of the length. The new railway line will in fact reach i 64 kilometers overall, thus becoming the longer rail tunnel in the world.
