Project Y

TUNNELLING Even though more machines and better and more modern
technologies are being employed: tunnelling remains a dangerous and arduous
task. It’s like a route leading through unknown country and taken in small steps.
// clAUDiA lAgler
I
t is hot, dusty, loud and
the air so thick you might
as well cut it: Working
in tunnelling and being particular
don‘t go together well. The working
environment is anything but cosy
when people, step by step, dig their
way through rock to mine a new
street or railway line. Tunnelling
remains a dangerous and arduous
task despite the use of machines.
This is very true for the St.-
Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland.
Once completed in 2015 it will be
the longest tunnel in the world.
57 kilometres through a gigantic
mountain range in the Central Alps.
More and more tunnels are being
built through mountain ranges the
denser the traffic and trading system
grows. The tunnels are either
mined or built using the open cut
tunnelling method. Even though
we live in a time where everything
seems to have been discovered
a project like the St.-Gotthard
railway tunnel poses an incredible
challenge to civil engineers.
Century-old and tried and tested
methods meet high-tech procedures
that determine which route
the many tons of machinery are
to follow when eating their way
through the mountain or where a
shaft is to be pushed ahead, step by
step, with explosives.
Tunnelling technologies have
changed in the course of time. Procedures
are being optimised, more
powerful machines and devices
employed and easier-to-handle
concrete used. „The art is to build
fast, cheap and safe. Safety at work
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