Europe’s highest and most extensive mountain range, the Alps, span 1,200km across eight countries in a crescent shape from France to Austria. Throughout history, crossing the Alps has been a challenging feat for travelers, traders, and military strategists. The Romans and iconic figures like Hannibal and Napoleon navigated these mountains to gain strategic advantages in warfare.
The Gotthard Base Tunnel, inaugurated in 2016 at a cost of around £11.5bn, serves as a vital link connecting northern and southern Europe. This tunnel, the longest and deepest ever constructed, facilitates faster travel and freight transport between key cities like Basel, Zurich, Milan, and Lugano, reducing travel times significantly.
Spanning 57km with a depth of 2.3km, the Gotthard tunnel offers a flat route through the Alps, allowing trains to reach speeds of up to 155mph. It surpasses the previous world record holder, Japan’s Seikan rail tunnel, by 3km, and outshines the Channel Tunnel between England and France by 7km.
The construction of the Gotthard tunnel, which replaced the original Gotthardbahn rail tunnel completed in 1882, began in the 1980s and took 17 years to complete. The project faced challenges like preventing collapses under the pressure of the surrounding mountains, which were overcome through innovative engineering solutions including reinforced steel rings.
To bore through the mountains, a massive drill equivalent to four football fields in length was used. This colossal machine, measuring 410m in length and 10m in width, carved through 40m of mountain per day, making the ambitious project a reality.