One of the largest construction projects in Europe is being implemented in the Alps. The work is in full swing.
The world’s longest railway tunnel cutting through the Alps, connecting the city of Innsbruck in Austria with Franzensfeste, a village in South Tyrol in Italy, is taking shape. The 64 km long Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT), which began construction in 2007, is scheduled to be operational in 2032, and costs more than $10 billion.
A few months ago, excavation work was completed on a geologically complex 5 km long site on the Austrian side. It is noted that the Brenero Pass, passing through the Alps, forming the border between Italy and Austria, is one of the most important transport links between Northern and Southern Europe.
The purpose of constructing a tunnel that will combine freight and passenger transport is improvement of railway communication between North and South Tyrol, which would make it possible to cross the Alps in a much shorter time than today. The Brenner Tunnel will replace the existing railway line, which carries trains at speeds of up to 70 km/h due to the steep terrain on which the tracks are located.
Today the time from Innsbruck to Bolzano is 2 hours, but with the new tunnel it will be reduced to about 50 minutes. The project is funded by Austria and Italy with a large contribution from the European Union.
Currently, the longest railway tunnel in the world is the Gotthard. It is located in Switzerland, under the Alps, serving the Milan-Zurich railway line, opened in 1996 and opened to traffic on June 1, 2016.
More Stories
China: highway collapse, dozens of victims and injured (video)
A terrible tragedy in Kyrgyzstan: a truck hit 29 children at a festive event (video)
A 48-year-old Ukrainian was killed in Hungary