Ceneri base tunnel
| Ceneri Base Tunnel (railway line under construction) Galleria di base del Monte Ceneri |
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| Route length: | 22.6 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | southernmost section: 12.5 ‰ remaining section: 6.8 ‰ |
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| Minimum radius : | Tunnel: 5000 m Access: 850 m Connecting curve Locarno – Lugano: 300 m |
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| Top speed: | Tunnel: 250 km / h Access: 140 km / h Connection curve Locarno – Lugano: 80 km / h |
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| Traffic: | 200–250 trains / day | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transport performance (freight trains): | 40 million tons / year | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Client: | AlpTransit Gotthard | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Building-costs: | 1.2 billion CHF (planned) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Construction process: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Probing system Sigirino: | 1997-2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Official start of construction: | June 2, 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TBM excavation of the Sigirino access tunnel: | February 15, 2008 to November 6, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Start of blasting Sigirino: | March 10, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Start of blasting drive Vezia: | April 12, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Installation of railway technology: | 2017-2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Penetration: | West tube: January 21, 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| completion | 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Commissioning (planned): | End of 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Ceneri Base Tunnel , or CBT for short ( Italian Galleria di base del Monte Ceneri ), is a 15-kilometer-long, double-track railway tunnel in the Swiss canton of Ticino that is about to go into operation . It was created as part of the Swiss rail project Neue Eisenbahn-Alpentransversale (NEAT) and serves as a southern feeder to the Gotthard base tunnel . The official groundbreaking ceremony took place in 2006, the opening originally planned for 2019 was postponed in 2015 to the end of 2020.
Location and course
The tunnel leads from the Sopraceneri , more precisely from Camorino in the Magadino plain , to the Sottoceneri near Vezia . From the north portal Vigana it rises in the direction of the south portal by 110 m. The gradients are largely less than 7 per thousand, from the Sarè caverns to the Vezia portal in sections of 10 to 12.5 per thousand. The rock cover in the Ceneri zone is 500 to 800 meters. The mouth profile of the single-track sections is up to 7.9 meters wide.
purpose
This 15.4 km long tunnel creates a new connection between the northern and southern parts of the Canton of Ticino. With the new breakthrough, the Gotthard axis of the NEAT is approaching the target state of a flat railway , the highest point of which is 550 m above sea level. M. lies. Thanks to the two base tunnels under Gotthard and Ceneri, the maximum gradient of the route will only be around seven per mille, so that despite the remaining shorter sections with gradients of up to 21 per mille, heavy freight trains with trailer loads of up to 4,000 tons can pass through Switzerland without increased traction. This will be a major step forward compared to the old Gotthard Railway from 1882 and its complex route.
In long-distance passenger transport, this results in a time gain of ten minutes on the section. The tunnel is designed for 250 km / h. In addition, the Ceneri base tunnel helps Ticino to achieve a more attractive S-Bahn network between the conurbations of Bellinzona and Locarno in the Sopraceneri and Lugano and Chiasso in the Sottoceneri and Varese in Lombardy .
The tunnel is intended to reduce the travel time between Locarno and Lugano from 55 to 22 minutes. However, Lugano's booming industrial and service zone Val Vedeggio ( Valle del Vedeggio in Italian ) cannot be served by fast traffic via the Ceneri Base Tunnel, and the combined transport terminal there is no longer directly accessible from the future transit axis. Critically it is also noted that overcapacity is being created in the Ceneri area, while at Bellinzona and on the single-track branch line towards Luino and on to Genoa, some significant bottlenecks persist.
Four freight and six passenger trains should be able to pass through the tunnel per hour.
history
planning
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Ceneri base tunnel Galleria di base del Monte Ceneri |
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| use | Railway tunnel | ||||
| traffic connection | Gotthard axis of the NEAT | ||||
| place | Monte Ceneri | ||||
| length |
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| Number of tubes | 2 | ||||
| cross-section | 62 to 87 m² | ||||
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| operator | SBB | ||||
| location | |||||
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| Coordinates | |||||
| North portal west tube | 719539 / 112798 | ||||
| North portal east tube | 719568 / 112836 | ||||
| South portal west tube | 715843 / 98290 | ||||
| South portal east tube | 715845 / 98119 | ||||
Map with all coordinates: In 1991 a geological exploration began. For the Ceneri zone, the geological conditions, with the exception of local fault zones, were rated as moderate to good. The crossing of the Linea Val Colla was classified as unfavorable, that of the Val Colla zone as moderate to unfavorable.
In March 1999, the Swiss Federal Council approved the preliminary project for the Ceneri base tunnel, subject to a decision on the tunnel system (double-track tunnel or two single-track tubes). As with the Gotthard Base Tunnel project, he commissioned AlpTransit Gotthard AG (ATG), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), with the construction. A more than 3 km long exploratory and exploratory tunnel was then excavated near Sigirino in order to clarify the geology at tunnel level. In December 2003 the Council of States and in June 2004 the National Council approved the granting of loans .
There is no need for multifunctional points, such as those built in the Gotthard Base Tunnel at a distance of approx. 20 kilometers, due to the tunnel length of 15.4 km. On the other hand, the originally planned double-lane tunnel concept subsequently proved unsuitable for the required mixed traffic (simultaneous freight and passenger transport): For safety reasons, it was necessary to switch to the much more expensive construction method with two single-lane tunnels, which were connected every 325 meters by a total of 46 crosscuts. Parliamentarians from various camps, however, expressed reservations about this solution. In July 2001 the Federal Council decided to build the tunnel with two single-track tubes.
A 2.7 km long exploratory tunnel and a 2.3 km long window tunnel were constructed near Sigirino . The window gallery serves as the main access gallery and was driven with an open tunnel boring machine with a diameter of 9.7 m. This enabled the main tunnel to be excavated in four places at the same time, which contributed significantly to limiting the construction time. However, only relatively short counter-drives were driven at two of these four points of attack, namely at the two portals , in order to protect the residents from excessive nuisance. The main excavation work therefore took place in Sigirino, where the excavation was primarily carried out using drilling and blasting due to the expected fault zones. A tunnel boring machine was then used for the final section to the south . Only blasting is planned to the north. The overburden was deposited on site in Sigirino .
The north portal of the Ceneri Base Tunnel is located in the Sant'Antonino TI - Vigana - Camorino area , the south portal near Vezia . In the area of the two north portals, so-called branching caverns were created in the tunnel, which allow the change from one tube to the other. The eastern tunnel tube in the portal area was designed with two lanes, with the additional, third track being used to create a direct connection between Lugano and Locarno.
construction
The blasting was carried out from the Sigrino intermediate attack simultaneously in both tubes to the north (8.3 km) and south (6.1 km).
At the end of March 2006, preparatory work for the site installations began in Sigirino . On June 2, 2006, the foundation stone was laid at the north portal in the presence of the Swiss Minister of Transport, Moritz Leuenberger .
In February 2008, drilling for the Sigirino window gallery (parallel to the existing exploratory gallery) began with a tunnel boring machine . In addition, preparatory work was carried out in 2008 and 2009, such as setting up the installation areas at the portals and building site tracks and a temporary bridge at Camorino . An Italian working group was commissioned in 2009 with the largest construction lot, the excavation of the two tunnel tubes from the Sigirino intermediate tap.
The tunneling began in spring 2010. On September 22, 2010, a worker was killed for the first time during the tunneling work.
As of June 1, 2015, 37.35 km (93.8%) of 39.8 km of tunnels had been excavated; in the north, around 1.2 km each had to be excavated in both tubes. The completion was expected for spring 2016. 60 percent of the interior work was carried out on the east tube and 25 percent on the west tube.
In the south, the western tube was punctured on March 17, 2015, and the eastern tube on March 30, 2015. The lining was originally supposed to be completed by the end of 2016.
Due to complaints against the award of two large lots for rail technology in August 2013, which were finally rejected by the Federal Supreme Court in September 2014 , the start of the rail technology work was one year behind schedule. Commissioning was then postponed in spring 2015 from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020.
On January 21, 2016, the first main breakthrough took place in the west tube, a good ten weeks later that of the east tube, completing the drive.
The excavated cross-sections (without branching structures) are 62 to 87 square meters. The excavated volume amounts to a total of 3½ million cubic meters.
East tube in the Ceneri Base Tunnel
Installation space at Camorino
drilling machine
Aerial view
Construction work in the base tunnel
Noise protection at the tunnel exit
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Installation
The Federal Office of Transport released test operation in mid-February 2020. In the night of March 1, 2020, the two electronic interlockings and ETCS Level 2 were put into operation.
Test drives by the ATG are planned until the end of August 2020. The SBB should take over the tunnel at the beginning of September 2020, after which commercial test drives with passenger and freight trains are planned. The scheduled commissioning is planned for the timetable change in mid-December 2020. A one-month delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland is to be made up.
technology
The tunnel, which can be driven at 250 km / h, is equipped with an overhead conductor rail. ETCS Level 2 with 300 to 600 m long signal intervals is available for train control .
The ETCS operating mode Reversing enables trains to run backwards in a controlled manner in the event of an incident.
Camorino knot
The Camorino node ( Nodo di Camorino in Italian ) is located immediately adjacent to the north portal, namely where the new line intersects with the existing railway line. Numerous bridges have to be rebuilt in this area. The existing two-track bridge over the A2 motorway will be replaced by a four-track bridge. Two more bridges over the cantonal road for the access and exit from the north portal in the direction of Bellinzona / Gotthard and in the direction of Locarno / Luino must also be rebuilt. In addition, a temporary bridge is being built over the cantonal road for the construction site.
The junction could become even more important if the Bellinzona railway bypass were to be built later (although this is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future due to the premature exhaustion of the available funds). This bypass, which for the most part also runs in the tunnel, would have its south portal on the opposite side of the valley at Sementina and connect the two tunnels with the crossing of the Magadino plain . At the intersection with the old railway line, the Camorino junction, a new station would then be built, the Stazione Ticino . The name suggests that most of the express trains that will then reach southern Ticino via the new high-speed line will only stop there and pass Bellinzona, the capital of Ticino. In May 2007, however, the SBB distanced itself from the idea of a Stazione Ticino and made it clear that the express trains should not stop anywhere else than before, namely in the city centers.
costs
The cost of the Ceneri base tunnel was originally estimated at around CHF 1.2 billion, which increased to CHF 2.050 billion after the transition to the two-tube construction method. At the start of construction, however, an increase in costs of at least 10% is expected.
The construction costs were given in 2015 at around 2.2 billion francs.
Future expansions
Continuing south
The junction in the Sarè tunnel was built 2 1 ⁄ 2 kilometers before the south portal in Vezia, which should allow the tunnel to be continued south in future. The start of construction on this continuation is scheduled for planning and financial reasons after 2030. Italy is only partially planning this continuation, de facto only an expansion of the route from Seregno to Bergamo , the so-called "Gronda Est", in order to disentangle the Milan railway junction. For the Italians, the fastest possible expansion of the connection to Genoa ( Oleggio – Pino railway via Cadenazzo ) and the associated “Gronda Ovest” are in the foreground. Since Switzerland and Ticino in particular are primarily interested in the expansion of the Lugano- Chiasso-Como-Milan axis, an agreement was made between Italy and Switzerland to advance the planning of the respective axes autonomously.
In autumn 2009, the Swiss side presented a paper which highlighted the advantages and disadvantages of the four remaining route variants (A2, B, C and TI). It was concluded that route variant B was favored, but variant TI was not postponed either, since this is still to be declared as the preferred variant of the Canton of Ticino in further planning. Objects of investigation were u. a. the feasibility, the construction costs, the cost-benefit factor, the possible geological risks and the expected travel time. An essential part of this test was that the project could be staggered. Due to this factor, route variant A2 was completely excluded from the further planning, as it was difficult to achieve a meaningful connection to the existing network on this route and thus make the project possible in stages. Should route variant B be implemented, the Ceneri base tunnel would have a length of over 40 kilometers.
At the beginning of December 2014, Ticino Regional Planning (ASPAN-TI) presented a Swiss-Italian action alliance at a conference in Lugano, which calculated construction costs of CHF 3 billion instead of CHF 5.2 billion for variant B. The significant cost reduction is based on modifications to the previous plans: For example, after the branch from Saré, the two single-lane tubes are to be merged into a double-lane tunnel and thus led to Chiasso. The only exception is a two-tube section under Lake Lugano , which begins north of Melide and runs to just before Maroggia .
With the help of private financing, this action alliance, consisting of spatial planners, engineers, financiers and office holders, is trying to decisively accelerate the realization of the southern extension. The consortium also wants to participate financially in the expansion of the Como-Milan line and has also submitted plans for a Monza bypass tunnel to be built between Seregno and the Milano Greco Pirelli train station .
literature
- Marco Ceriani: Ceneri Base Tunnel: Current construction progress and outlook . In: tunnel . Official organ of the STUVA . No. 4/2015 . Bauverlag BV, July 2015, ISSN 0722-6241 , p. 12–25 (bilingual German / English; the article was part of the lecture program at the 14th Swiss Tunnel Congress 2015 in Lucerne).
Web links
- Ceneri base tunnel project , Alptransit Gotthard AG
- Alptransit portal of the Swiss Federal Archives
- Denis Rossi: Ceneri Base Tunnel . Tunnel 4/2009, pp. 49–51, ( PDF file; 0.5 MB ), ISSN 0722-6241
- Homepage of the Ticino Regional Planning Association , ASPAN-TI (Italian)
- Ceneri base tunnel at ethorama.library.ethz.ch/en/node
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ceneri Base Tunnel: Commissioning is expected to take place in December 2020 ( memento of July 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Media release from AlpTransit Gotthard from June 15, 2015.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Marco Ceriani: Ceneri Base Tunnel: Current construction progress and outlook . In: tunnel . tape 34 , no. 4 , 2015, ISSN 0722-6241 , p. 12-25 .
- ↑ Kevin Smith: Testing of Switzerland's Ceneri Base Tunnel set to begin. In: railjournal.com. February 27, 2020, accessed on April 16, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Beat Intergand, Alex Regli, Walter Schneebeli: The long way to plan approval . In: AlpTransit Gotthard AG (Ed.): The construction of the century is being built (= Gotthard Base Tunnel - the longest tunnel in the world ). 1st edition. tape 2 . Stämpfli-Verlag, Bern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7272-1211-6 , pp. 33-37 .
- ↑ Yves Trottet, David Vernez, Marcel Jufer (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne): analysis of the risques pour les accidents dans les tunnels. Project as part of the National Research Program “Transport and Environment” (NRP 41). Press report , EDMZ, Bern 1999, order number 801.620.f
- ↑ Geri Müller: Urgent questions about the Ceneri tunnel. Interpellation of June 22, 2007
- ↑ Max Binder: Neat access roads. Situation of the Ceneri tunnel. Parliamentary question of 18 June 2007
- ↑ "Ceneri: 987 million Swiss francs order volume to Italy" ( Memento from December 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Schweizer Bauwirtschaft online, June 11, 2009
- ↑ Accident at work. Ceneri tunnel claims first victim . In: 20 minutes , September 22, 2010.
- ↑ Ceneri base tunnel: breakthrough of the west tube between Sigirino and Vezia ( memento of January 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Media release from AlpTransit Gotthard of March 17, 2015.
- ↑ Ceneri Base Tunnel: heading south completed ( memento from January 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Media release from AlpTransit Gotthard dated March 30, 2015.
- ↑ a b Ceneri Base Tunnel: BAV approves test operation. In: bav.admin.ch. Federal Office of Transport , February 17, 2020, accessed on May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Technical commissioning of the Ceneri base tunnel. In: sbb.ch. Swiss Federal Railways, February 26, 2020, accessed on March 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Ceneri Base Tunnel ready for operation in good time. In: bav.admin.ch. Federal Office of Transport, July 2020, accessed on August 11, 2020 .
- ↑ Markus Fanta, Nicolas Steinmann: Protective measures for electrical separation of the overhead contact line in the Ceneri base tunnel . In: Electric Railways . tape 17 , no. 2 + 3 , February 2019, ISSN 0013-5437 , p. 76-85 .
- ↑ Gotthard Line: Investments between Lugano and Milan too tvsvizzera.it, December 10, 2014 (Italian)