Well, the incredible 35 mile long Neat
Gotthard based tunnel construction has completed actually the world's longest
and deepest railway tunnel, in Switzerland. The Tunnel has now surpassed
Japan’s 14.5-mile Seikan Tunnel, which connects the main island of Honshu with
the northern island of Hokkaido. The tunnel will transport passengers from
Zurich to Milan in about two hours and fifty minutes, saving an hour off
current travel time. The NEAT Gotthard Base Tunnel, opens to the public on June
1 2016, measuring 35 miles, it surpasses Japan’s 14.5-mile Seikan Tunnel. The
mega projected was planned in 1996, and it took almost 20 years to complete.
The ambitious project was funded by Switzerland at cost of around $10.3 billion
or £6.5 billion.
More than 2,000 workers were drafted in
to excavate over two million truckloads of earth from as deep as 8,000 below
the surface of the earth. Due to the rugged terrain of the Alps, linking
imperative cities, such as Milan and Zurich is no mean feat, but highly thanks
to the tunnel being almost completely flat along its entire length, trains will
soon be able to travel at over 150 miles per hour. Therefore, excavation
involved huge tunnel boring machines cutting through almost 100 feet of rock
every day. It was a dangerous process, and tragically eight workers died during
construction. The first safety tests
will take place in October 2015. So far all scenarios will be considered and
tested. After opening the tunnel, it
will be the safest stretch of the Swiss railway network. Moreover, in January
2016, thousand people will be selected to take the first voyage.
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