World's Longest Tunnel Created Under Swiss Alps
Swiss engineers smashed through the last stretch of rock Friday to create the world's longest tunnel, sparking a national groundswell of elation over a costly, technically difficult project that has been 60 years in the making.
Trumpets sounded, cheers reverberated and even burly workers wiped away tears as foreman Eduard Baer lifted a statue of Saint Barbara - the patron saint of miners - through a small hole in the enormous drilling machine thousands of feet underground in central Switzerland.
At that moment, a 35.4-mile tunnel was born, and the Alpine nation reclaimed the record from Japan's Seikan Tunnel. Television stations across Europe showed the event live.
"This is the most wonderful moment in my 36 years of tunnel building," Baer said as he paused for breath, surrounded by joyous colleagues in hardhats and bright orange work gear, VIPs and news cameras.
The new Gotthard Base Tunnel is seen as an important milestone in the creation of a high-speed transportation network connecting all corners of Europe.
First conceived in 1947 by engineer Eduard Gruner, it will allow millions of tons of goods that are currently transported through the Alps on heavy trucks to be shifted onto the rails, particularly on the economically important link between the Dutch port of Rotterdam and Italy's Mediterranean port of Genoa.
The tunnel also aims to reduce the damage that heavy trucks are inflicting on Switzerland's pristine Alpine landscape.
Peter Fueglistaler, director of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport, called Friday "a day of joy for Switzerland."
"We are not a very emotional people but if we have the longest tunnel in the world, this also for us is very, very emotional" he told The Associated Press.
Some 2,500 workers have spent nearly 20 years smashing through the rock beneath the towering Gotthard massif, including the 8,200-foot Piz Vatgira (Vatgira Peak).
When the $10 billion tunnel opens for rail traffic in 2017, it will replace Japan's 33.5-mile Seikan Tunnel as the world's longest - excluding aqueducts - and let passenger and cargo trains pass under the Alps at speeds of up to 155 mph on their way from Germany to Italy.
Swiss voters, who are paying over $1,300 each to fund the project, approved its construction in a series of referendums almost 20 years ago.
European transport ministers watched the breakthrough ceremony live from a meeting in Luxembourg, conscious that Switzerland has set the bar very high for future cross-Alpine rail projects. Two further tunnels - one connecting connect Lyon, France, to Turin in Italy, and the other replacing the Brenner road tunnel between Austria and Italy - are still a long way from completion.
Swiss engineers are hoping to complete the rail tunnel even sooner than planned - possibly by the end of 2016 - but its first high-speed trains could be delayed by protests in Germany and Italy, where local opposition to new tracks and budget constraints have become an issue in recent months.
"Our neighbors in Germany and Italy will have to fulfill their promise and provide high-speed rail links," Fueglistaler said.
Asked whether he thought the large, ongoing protests in the German city of Stuttgart could derail the high-speed dream, he said: "Overall I'm confident that these connections will be built in time."
The protesters in Stuttgart oppose plans to move the city's station underground, viewing the ?4.1 billion ($5.7 billion) project as a waste of money. Supporters say it will free up the city's packed center and help shorten journeys across Europe.
Heinz Ehrbar, a bear of a man in bright orange overalls, told the AP the breakthrough celebration was also a moment to reflect on the lives lost during the Gotthard tunnel's construction.
"I'm really proud, but I'm thinking also of the eight people who have lost their lives," said Ehrbar, the tunnel's chief construction officer. "It's very important that we remember that not all of our workers can be with us today."
© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Trumpets sounded, cheers reverberated and even burly workers wiped away tears as foreman Eduard Baer lifted a statue of Saint Barbara - the patron saint of miners - through a small hole in the enormous drilling machine thousands of feet underground in central Switzerland.
At that moment, a 35.4-mile tunnel was born, and the Alpine nation reclaimed the record from Japan's Seikan Tunnel. Television stations across Europe showed the event live.
"This is the most wonderful moment in my 36 years of tunnel building," Baer said as he paused for breath, surrounded by joyous colleagues in hardhats and bright orange work gear, VIPs and news cameras.
The new Gotthard Base Tunnel is seen as an important milestone in the creation of a high-speed transportation network connecting all corners of Europe.
First conceived in 1947 by engineer Eduard Gruner, it will allow millions of tons of goods that are currently transported through the Alps on heavy trucks to be shifted onto the rails, particularly on the economically important link between the Dutch port of Rotterdam and Italy's Mediterranean port of Genoa.
The tunnel also aims to reduce the damage that heavy trucks are inflicting on Switzerland's pristine Alpine landscape.
Peter Fueglistaler, director of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport, called Friday "a day of joy for Switzerland."
"We are not a very emotional people but if we have the longest tunnel in the world, this also for us is very, very emotional" he told The Associated Press.
Some 2,500 workers have spent nearly 20 years smashing through the rock beneath the towering Gotthard massif, including the 8,200-foot Piz Vatgira (Vatgira Peak).
When the $10 billion tunnel opens for rail traffic in 2017, it will replace Japan's 33.5-mile Seikan Tunnel as the world's longest - excluding aqueducts - and let passenger and cargo trains pass under the Alps at speeds of up to 155 mph on their way from Germany to Italy.
Swiss voters, who are paying over $1,300 each to fund the project, approved its construction in a series of referendums almost 20 years ago.
European transport ministers watched the breakthrough ceremony live from a meeting in Luxembourg, conscious that Switzerland has set the bar very high for future cross-Alpine rail projects. Two further tunnels - one connecting connect Lyon, France, to Turin in Italy, and the other replacing the Brenner road tunnel between Austria and Italy - are still a long way from completion.
Swiss engineers are hoping to complete the rail tunnel even sooner than planned - possibly by the end of 2016 - but its first high-speed trains could be delayed by protests in Germany and Italy, where local opposition to new tracks and budget constraints have become an issue in recent months.
(AlpTransit Gotthard)
Asked whether he thought the large, ongoing protests in the German city of Stuttgart could derail the high-speed dream, he said: "Overall I'm confident that these connections will be built in time."
The protesters in Stuttgart oppose plans to move the city's station underground, viewing the ?4.1 billion ($5.7 billion) project as a waste of money. Supporters say it will free up the city's packed center and help shorten journeys across Europe.
Heinz Ehrbar, a bear of a man in bright orange overalls, told the AP the breakthrough celebration was also a moment to reflect on the lives lost during the Gotthard tunnel's construction.
"I'm really proud, but I'm thinking also of the eight people who have lost their lives," said Ehrbar, the tunnel's chief construction officer. "It's very important that we remember that not all of our workers can be with us today."
Popular in SciTech
- One woman's journey to save the white lions
- Calif. teen wins Intel Science Research competition Play Video
- Computer visionary says he knows who invented Bitcoin
- New Flickr comes with 1 terabyte free storage
- Canada trying to lure Silicon Valley tech workers
- Apple's next iPhone may be coming in June
- Preview: Killzone Mercenary
- Thousands online proclaim: Jahar Tsarnaev is innocent
What are people thinking, mythology should not be the way people base their lives.
So where is all that shovel ready "infrastructure" that democrats were blathering about financing 18 months ago? Democrats have spent a record shattering 3 trillion during Obama's short stay in office.
And where did all the "stimulus" go? Half of it went to prop up mismanaged state governments (most of them run by democrats). Instead of forcing states to cut wasteful spending and stand up to extortionist public employee unions to balance budgets, Obama played favoritism with his base and allowed them to put off the inevitable for a couple years.
And a bunch of the stimulus went to democrat pork barrel projects to endear themselves to their voters.
And what about Obama de-funding NASA's transitional lift rocket. We now are unable to put astronauts into orbit. We have to pay the Russians to send our astronauts to the space station using 40 year old Soviet technology.
That's really forward thinking. And then he gave NASA the bizarre assignment of reaching out to Muslim world to show appreciation for Muslim contributions to science (what?).
I see you must be a GOP lap dog, crying about Obama's stimulus money being a big waste. Let me ask you...what would YOU do? It's real easy to sit back in the crowd crying with no answers to anything. Your boys (GOP) had a plan of just saying NO to everything. You and yours sound like spoiled brats who lost their turn, and instead of being a good sport of things you want to pout and be immature. Let's no forget giant defecits under GW, starting a war in Iraq that had nothing to do with anything, and the economy going down the tubes. Obama comes along, trying to brian storm looking to get the economy moving thru government projects (because we really need those projects anyway) and you/yours are STILL moaning. The president (regardless who they are) can't do it all by themselves. Everybody needs to pitch in and pull to save the econony. It's not just thru stimulus projects, but thru accross the isle cooperation to want to get the problem solved.
As for NASA, ask yourself this; what have they done since going to the moon? Not much. That's why NASA doesn't matter. I like NASA, they contribute alot to the world. I am outraged that we are retiring the shuttle fleet with no replacement ship ready to go. It's time for NASA to dream big again and shoot for the stars again...literally.
This is what you get when you don't have Republicans standing in the way of everything.
What happened to America's captialistic pioneering spirit? America built the Panama cannal without Government funds. America built the US rail system without government funds.
So just why do you wish for Larger government and more deficit spending ? And if you feel so strongly about high speed rail, how come you haven't taken your passion and made taken some personal risks to promote high speed rail? You might even make a buck while you are at it?
Until we get our energy, environmental, and transportation policies in tune with the needs and realities of the 21st century and beyond, we will become but also-ran laggards, and most certainly lose whatever claim we have left as the most technologically advanced, most powerful nation on earth. How Americans can think that 100-year-old technology and policies that continue to support it can lead us forward is beyond me.
No less a person than Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, hardly some liberal tree hugger and the company he heads, empahatically stated (see NYT and WSJ) that America's energy and environmental policies are out of synch with our needs, and China is already way ahead of us.
The day of reckoning is coming sooner than we think.
Yep China is way ahead of us working towards an national economic disaster? Where else is China ahead of the US? Besides its having the laws and government the Far Right dreams of?