Last Thursday, September 18, the miners who are responsible for the construction of the longest railway, built under the Alps, finished drilling the rock wall in the Brennero pass, which means that one of the three planned tunnels are already about to complete.
It is expected that the traffic, whose cost is estimated at about 8.5 billion euros, Start from 2032, with a delay of about 16 years, as reported Reuters. Thus, once the works are finished, the travel time between Fortezza and Innsbruck will be reduced to about 25 minutes, instead of 80 minutes.
It should be noted that the Brennero Base Tunnel (BBT) is actually a tunnel system composed of 230 kilometers of tunnels, of which for now 204 kilometers have been excavated, which translates into 88%. The system has three separate tunnels: the investigation, the west and the east.
In this case, the tunnel that has been drilled is the investigation, which provides information on the rock and reduces the cost and time for the construction of the other tunnels, And they will not circulate trains. Regarding its depth, the deepest point is 1,720 meters below ground level.
Some of the reasons why these types of tunnel are necessary are because it is essential for drainage, for maintenance work and for the installation of technical equipment.
The longest railway tunnel in the world
Currently, until the BBT tunnel is finished, the tunnel that has the record of being the longest in the world is San Gardardo’slocated in Switzerland, which has 57 kilometers long, it was finished building in 2016 and connects Italy and Switzerland.
It has three different structures: the road tunnel (16.9 km) the railway tunnel (15 km) and the one that holds the record, the tunnel of the San Gardardo base (57 kilometers). As curiosity, for its construction, More than 28 million tons of rock were needed.
