[PRL] Constructing the World’s Longest Tunnel, December 7, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.

Karl Lieberherr lieber at ccs.neu.edu
Wed Nov 22 14:35:23 EST 2006


If you are interested in the aspects of the construction of a 34 mile
railway tunnel, you are
welcome at SHARE. That is a concern that crosscuts  the alps :-)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: SHARE Boston < mailinglist at shareboston.org>
Date: Nov 22, 2006 9:31 AM
Subject: AlpTransit Gotthard- Constructing the World's Longest Tunnel,
December 7, 2006 - 6:30 p.m.
To: lieber at ccs.neu.edu


     [image: $Account.OrganizationName]      AlpTransit Gotthard
Constructing he World's Longest Tunnel  December 7th, 2006, 6:30 PM

Dear Karl Lieberherr,

Ambros Zgraggen, deputy director of communications at AlpTransit Gotthard
Ltd.<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=rjfud9bab.0.oef4g9bab.wutvyebab.982&ts=S0212&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alptransit.ch%2Fpages%2Fe%2F>,
will discuss the project AlpTransit – the construction of two new
superlative tunnels crossing the Alps: The Lötschberg and the Gotthard.

In particular, he will focus on the Gotthard Base Tunnel, a flat rail link
through the Alps and, at 34 miles, the world's longest tunnel.

Please join us for this event about St. Gotthard - the legendary mountain.

Kind regards,
The SHARE Team
-Remo

   [image: Tunnel construction AlpTransit
Gotthard]<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=rjfud9bab.0.oef4g9bab.wutvyebab.982&ts=S0212&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alptransit.ch%2Fpages%2Fe%2F>

Consulate of Switzerland/ SHARE
420 Broadway
Cambridge,
MA 02138

Thursday,
December 7, 2006
6:30 p.m.

 *Agenda*

6.30 pm Welcome by Remo Steinmetz, SHARE Boston
6.35 pm Presentation by Ambros Zgraggen, AlpTransit
followed by Q & A
7.30 pm Networking reception

The event is free of charge, but please RSVP below

*St. Gotthard - the legendary mountain*

Neither the Matterhorn, the Jungfrau nor the Pilatus is Switzerland's
mountain of the mountain. That honor goes to St. Gotthard, for it is here
that Switzerland was allegedly founded and where it built its masterpieces.
Every schoolchild knows the legend of the construction of the Teufelsbrücke,
and how the people of Uri outwitted the devil. Many know the "St. Gotthard
Mail Coach" painting by Rudolf Koller. Old men and women remember the
military fort on St. Gotthard from the Second World War. Some people see the
birth of their nation reflected in the freedom-loving shepherds of St.
Gotthard. And all Swiss are proud of engineering feats like the mountain
pass, the railway and its helical tunnels, the motorway and road tunnel, and
what will eventually be the world's longest railway tunnel.

The Gotthard is once again the site of a monumental development. The 34
miles base tunnel from Erstfeld to Bodio is a tunnel of superlatives. It is
the longest railway tunnel in the world, the first level transalpine track,
it connects central and southern Switzerland, forms a straight,
near-horizontal connection, and is the boldest vision yet for conquering the
Alps. Since the autumn of 1993, gigantic tunnel drilling machinery with
drill heads 30 foot in diameter has been working its way through the
millennia-old rock. Never has a tunnel been dug so far into a mountain.
According to the computer model, the tips of the two screws will be less
than 20 centimetres apart when they meet at the centre.

This pioneering achievement of the 21st century will bring major
improvements to travel and transportation systems in the heart of Europe.
Trains will have to climb or descend no more than eight meters per
kilometer. Thanks to this small incline, trains will be able to race through
the Alps at 155 miles per hour, cutting travel times between Zurich and
Milan by an hour to only two hours and 40 minutes.

The near-level railway will also permit freight trains to carry more than
twice as much weight as at present and travel at up to 100 miles an hour.
The new Gotthard line is part of the New Rail Link through the Alps (NRLA).
The NRLA project to build the two tunnels under St.Gotthard and the
Lötschberg was approved by popular referendum in 1992 and gained planning
permission in 1998.

It is due to be completed in 2016 at a cost of about USD 15 billion. But
even now it's already clear that the Gotthard base tunnel and its two
single-track pipes will be the crowning achievement of the 21st Century. And
when the new flat line opens, what will happen to the old Gotthard railway,
this masterpiece of engineering prowess, when instead of 260 trains a day
only three dozen locomotives will climb the helical tunnels by Wassen's
little church? Plans are afoot for the Gotthard line to become a UNESCO
World Cultural Heritage site.

See full story on the St. Gotthard in:
Swiss Review, October
2006<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=rjfud9bab.0.qef4g9bab.wutvyebab.982&ts=S0212&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.revue.ch%2Fen%2Farchives%2F2006%2Frevue%2Fsr_e_2006_05_gotthard.pdf>
Kindly RSVP<kati at shareboston.org?subject=RSVP%20for%20AlpTransit%20Gotthard%20December%207,%202006>
     SHARE Boston
 420 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-876-3076
remo at shareboston.org
http://www.shareboston.org<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=rjfud9bab.0.uf57yebab.wutvyebab.982&ts=S0212&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shareboston.org>

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