FCC has finished boring the longest railway tunnel in the world, Saint Gotthard, in Switzerland. The new 57-kilometre-long structure, built by a consortium headed by FCC subsidiary Alpine, will connect the Swiss cities of Erstfeld and Bodio.

The tunnel breakthrough ceremony was attended by the Swiss minister of transport, Moritz Leuenberger, and different Alpine executives, such as Dietmar Aluta-Oltyan, chairman of the Supervisory Board.

Consorzio TAT, in which Alpine holds a share, won the 15-kilometre-long Bodio section and the 14-kilometre-long Faido section, two of the five sections into which the project was divided.

The contract, valued at 1,258 million euro, also includes the construction of the railway infrastructure for the two single-track tunnels and the tunnel facilities, plus the construction of eleven kilometres of outdoor track to reach the connection with the existing railway system.

Fifty-seven kilometres long

Saint Gotthard Base Tunnel, which is scheduled to open in 2017, has two main single-track tunnels that are 57 kilometres long. Altogether, it has a total of 153.5 kilometres of tunnels, including the service and connection tunnel sections.

When the tunnel is operational, it will double the goods-shipping capacity along the north/south Swiss corridor to 40 million tons and cut down the time it takes to travel from Zurich to Milan to two hours and 40 minutes, around an hour less than the current trip. Future passenger trains will be able to cross beneath the Alps at a maximum speed of 250 kilometres per hour.

FCC's experience building railway tunnels

FCC has participated in the construction of the Pajares Tunnel and the Guadarrama Tunnel, the most important tunnels in all of Spain's railway infrastructure. They have posed a great engineering challenge.

The Pajares Tunnel is part of the project for the new high-speed line between León and Asturias. It will take trains across the Cantabrian range, shortening the trip from its current 83 kilometres to 50 kilometres.

The tunnel has two parallel tubes, each 24.9 kilometres long, making Pajares the sixth-longest railway tunnel in Europe and the seventh-longest in the world. It has an inner diameter of 8.50 metres, designed for speeds of over 250 kilometres per hour.

Guadarrama Tunnel is the main project in the new north/south railway connection, which facilitates travel between the central plain and the northern half of the peninsula. It goes right through the Guadarrama mountain chain with a 28.2-kilometre-long double tunnel having an inner diameter of 8.5 metres. The tunnel was bored from both ends.

This is the first high-speed railway tunnel built without working shafts, and its length makes it the fourth-longest in Europe and the fifth-longest in the entire world.