Sedrun, Swiss Alps – Tunnel builders cheered and raised their glasses as the huge ten-metre tunnel-boring machine, nicknamed Sissi, crashed through the last few metres of rock.
At the start of this mammoth project 14 years ago, many geologists told them it was impossible to bore a tunnel through here, saying the rock was too unpredictable and warning of dangers to anyone working underground.
Today the tunnellers and engineers have proved them wrong and, despite its price tag of $10 billion, the Swiss are convinced this tunnel, now the world’s longest, is worth it.
Europe’s freight, rumbling through on the backs of 40-tonne lorries, has been clogging the alpine valleys for years: an estimated 3 000 heavy goods vehicles pass through the Swiss Alps every day.
Switzerland wants that freight underground, on the railways, and the new tunnel should achieve just that – a completely flat, straight, high-speed link.
It will be another six years before the line is open, but today’s breakthrough is, the Swiss say, a crucial step to improving Europe’s transport network, and protecting the alpine environment.
The 9.8 billion Swiss franc (US$10.3b) project will take up to 300 trains each day underneath the Alps.
About 2 500 people have worked on the tunnel and eight people have lost their lives during its construction.
A minute’s silence was held as the workers’ names were read out during a ceremony marking the tunnel’s completion.
Chief construction officer Heinz Ehrbar said that amid all the celebration, it was “very important that we remember that not all of our workers can be with us, but we are proud and we will be very happy this evening”.
