Switzerland Has Built the World's Longest Tunnel

Switzerland has built the longest in the world - 56.97 km - railway tunnel. Construction lasted 10 years. Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2017 will enable high-speed train travel between Germany and Italy, not crossing the Alps.

When the tunnel is put into operation, and its launch is scheduled for 2017, a trip along the route from Zurich - Lugano should be 100 minutes, from Zurich to Milan can be reached in 2 hours and 40 minutes, compared with the current nearly four hours. Speed trains in the tunnel would reach 250 km / h, and walk on it will be up to 300 express trains per day. In the photo: the workers are prepared for pouring cement at the northern exit of the tunnel on October 5. 

Vigel father and pastor of Nai during the service before the start of a solemn bond. 

For 14 years, builders have found drifting in the mountains of mine semiprecious stones, pumped underground lakes. The total volume of waste rock was 13.3 million cubic meters. Everything was put into it - filled with water , debris began building materials and semi-precious stones were in the city collection

Elderly Swiss overcame broadcast in an electronics shop. Construction of the tunnel - the most awaited event in Switzerland was widely reported in local media: Swiss television live broadcast, as the drill breaks through the last meters of rock and connects two parts of the tunnel. 

Builders poured water at the time, as the drill breaks through the rock. 

At this collage of photos can be seen the gradual process of drilling rig Sissi during the connection of two tunnels in an October 15. 

In the course of the work was extracted 24 million tons of rock. Such a large number of stone would have sufficed for the construction of five pyramids of Cheops. 

The Gotthard tunnel is replaced with first-place Japanese Seikan tunnel length of 53.9 kilometers, which connects the islands of Hokkaido and Honshu. Eurotunnel under the English Channel with a length of 49.9 kilometers, now in third place. 

Miner with a smile, watching the connection of two Thunell. About 2500 miners from all over Europe and South Africa have worked around the clock to drill about 27 million tons of rock. 

Giant rig Sissi overcame the last meters of rock separating the two tunnels Gotthard tunnel in the Swiss Alps. 

Plans for laying 57-km long "tunnel of the century" was designed a quarter century ago, construction work continued for ten years. So far, these objectives have been spent more than seven billion euros in the whole project will cost 15 billion euros. 

Manages a project of the New Alpine transport line NEAT Company AlpTransit Gotthard AG, participated in the construction including cement concern Holcim, the supplier of insulation materials Sika, construction conglomerate Implenia. 

Former Minister for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications Minister Adolf Ogi, hugs the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications Moritz Leuenberger, and beside them stands CEO "Gotthard Alptransit" Renzo Simoni.

Swiss Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger (center), along with builders during a ceremony at the stage of counter-penetration, which was held in October 15. 

The Swiss have agreed to this project in a referendum in 1998. The new tunnel, which in Switzerland are officially still the main project of this century, will allow trains to overcome the Gotthard pass at high speed under a mountain range. 

The new tunnel will make the Gotthard railway line from Zurich and Lucerne to the south of the canton of Ticino and Italy to speed. 

The new tunnel, which in Switzerland are officially still the main project of this century, will allow trains to overcome the Gotthard pass at high speed under a mountain range. Now, this route passes through the mountains, trains climb the mountain pass at 1150 meter height. In the photo: the builders are working on the electrical installation in a tunnel under construction at the site Erstfeld-Amsteg October 5.