Gotthard road tunnel
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Gotthard road tunnel Galleria stradale del San Gottardo
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 Interior view in the portal area. State in May 2013
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| use | Motorway tunnel | |||
| traffic connection |
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| place | Gotthard massif | |||
| length | 16,942 m | |||
| vehicles per day | 17'061 | |||
| Number of tubes | 1 | |||
| cross-section | 90 m² | |||
| Largest coverage | 1000 m | |||
| construction | ||||
| start of building | May 5th 1970 | |||
| completion | 1980 | |||
| business | ||||
| release | 5th September 1980 | |||
| location | ||||
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| Coordinates | ||||
| Göschenen | 688292 / 169597 | |||
| Airolo | 689117 / 153595 | |||
Map with all coordinates: The Gotthard road tunnel ( Italian Galleria stradale del San Gottardo ) is 16.9 kilometers in length, the fourth longest road tunnel in the world and the longest road tunnel in the Alps. The tunnel is part of the Swiss national road A2 from Basel to Chiasso . The road connects Göschenen in the canton of Uri with Airolo in the canton of Ticino . The north portal at Göschenen is 1080.27 m above sea level. M., the south portal at Airolo at 1145.57 m above sea level. M. It was built from 1970 to 1980 and opened on September 5, 1980 by Federal Councilor Hans Hürlimann . The Gotthard road tunnel is the most important Swiss corridor through the Alps. In 2012, it was used by an average of 17,061 vehicles per day, 15 percent of which were heavy trucks. The traffic load fluctuates strongly in the course of the day and seasonally. For example, over 34,000 vehicles passed through the tunnel on peak days in August 2012.
prehistory
The first plans at the end of the 1950s were based on two tunnels. The actual Gotthard tunnel would have been built between Urserental and Airolo, a second would have bypassed the Schöllenen Gorge . In the first national road network , decided by parliament in 1960, no Gotthard connection was planned. In the same year, however, a parliamentary motion was submitted to examine a winter-safe road connection in the form of a second Gotthard tunnel. The “Study Group for a Winter-Safe Road Connection through the Gotthard”, which was subsequently called up, delivered its report in 1963. This report led to the Gotthard road tunnel being included in the network of national roads. A limited competition was held among four engineering firms invited . 16 project variants were worked out. Two of them were advertised publicly in 1968, and based on the company offers received, a selection was made. This project largely corresponded to the shape built today, only the safety tunnel was not included. This came about because of the two Swiss automobile associations ( ACS and TCS ).
Building
The almost 17-kilometer-long tunnel tube is led between the portals in an arch to the west, which deviates from the direct, straight connection between the portals by a maximum of 2400 meters. This alignment was chosen to make the ventilation shafts accessible from the pass road and to avoid a geologically difficult area in the Urserental .
The excavation was carried out from the north and south by blasting, largely in full excavation. The safety tunnel was excavated in front of the main tunnel and thus also served as an exploration tunnel for the main tunnel. For safety reasons, partial excavation had to be carried out in some places in the main tunnel. This was the first 160 meters on the north side, where the spoil heap of the Gotthard railway tunnel was crossed. The acute-angled crossing under the railway tunnel at kilometer 1 also required special measures, as there was only a small vertical distance. Because of the possible effects on the railway tunnel, work could only be carried out with weak explosive charges and with partial excavation, as the railway tunnel was in operation during the entire construction period. At this point, an intermediate attack was set up by the safety tunnel. From kilometer 2.3 a change to a dome excavation had to be made because the rugged granite caused difficulties. Driving through the sedimentary formation of the Mesozoic and Permocarbons also required a partial eruption between kilometers 4.135 and 4.435 . There were also problems with the safety tunnel in this zone; The construction time for the safety tunnel for this short stretch was around a year. On the south side there was a zone with tremola shale in which only a partial excavation could be carried out. The 345 meter long pressure zone between kilometers 11.03 and 11.375 in paragneiss also required additional measures, which is why an advance attack was set up there from the safety gallery. The portal Airolo an approximately 30-meter-long tunnel section between the vent unit and the actual rock route in was open design created, which was subsequently covered with up to 17 meters of material again.
The excavation cross-section was 69 to 96 square meters, except in two geologically difficult zones approximately three hundred meters long, where up to 130 square meters were excavated. Parallel to the main tunnel, thirty meters away to the east, the safety tunnel was excavated, which was broken through on March 26, 1976. A few months later, on December 16, 1976, the roof of the main tunnel broke through. The average daily construction progress was 6 meters. 19 construction workers were killed during the construction work.
The Gotthard tunnel has six air handling units: two are located at the portals, the others are at Bäzberg in Hospental , on the pass road where the Guspisbach in the Gotthardreuss flows , and at Motto di Dentro . Fresh air and exhaust air are supplied and discharged in the ceiling space above the street.
Due to the large overburden, the temperature in the tunnel is up to 35 ° C even in winter.
The south portal of the tunnel is the work of the Ticino architect Rino Tami .
traffic
| Passages | |
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| Total vehicles (1980-2004) | approx. 131 million |
| Vehicles per year (1980) | approx. 2.9 million |
| Vehicles per year (2004) | approx. 6.0 million |
| Trucks per year (1980) | approx. 0.33 million |
| Trucks per year (2004) | approx. 1.24 million |
When the tunnel opened in 1980, the previously operated car transport through the railway tunnel was discontinued. The Gotthard road tunnel became the most important Swiss alpine crossing with 171,000 truck trips in 1981. As early as 1990, more than half a million trucks crossed the Alps on the Gotthard route, and in the following ten years the traffic increased to 1,187,000 trucks - trips more than doubled again. When the tunnel was closed in 2001 after an accident and the subsequent introduction of dosing systems, the number fell in the following years.
In 2009 it was used by 6.1 million vehicles; this corresponds to an average of around 16,700 per day or 700 vehicles per hour. In 2007, 15 percent of the vehicles passing through had German license plates.
There is two-way traffic in the only street tube: there is one lane available for each direction of travel, the maximum permitted speed is 80 km / h. Trucks must keep a safety distance of 150 m in the tunnel. To ensure this, they are let into the tunnel in what is known as a drop counter system .
During holiday periods, the increased traffic load regularly leads to traffic jams in front of the tunnel portals. If you want to avoid these traffic jams, you can use the Gotthard Pass . In the event of a traffic jam, the police will block the access roads to the A2 in Airolo and Göschenen .
fees
Since the Gotthard road tunnel is part of the Swiss national road network, the annual vignette is sufficient for its passage ; there are no additional tolls . The introduction of an Alpine transit exchange is (currently) planned for heavy traffic . With an Alpine transit exchange, the number of vehicles and capacity utilization should be controlled as efficiently as possible. Truck traffic in the road tunnel is to be limited. The aim is to get truck traffic going beyond the limit onto the rails.
Second tube
A rescue tunnel was built parallel to the road tunnel, which was viewed as an advance payment for a later expansion to four lanes. The full expansion was postponed for cost reasons; The second tube should only be completely broken out and equipped as a traffic tunnel when required. Due to the high number of trucks that used the Gotthard axis and its access roads, expansion was blocked politically and the relocation policy of the Federal Council was finally confirmed in February 1994 by the referendum on the Alpine Initiative . In 2001 a referendum was submitted with the Avanti Initiative , which aimed to expand the second Gotthard tube. The request was justified with the regular traffic jams in front of the tunnel portals, with safety arguments and with the upcoming renovation of the existing tube. Parliament's counter-draft to the withdrawn Avanti initiative was rejected by the people in February 2004.
At the beginning of August 2008, the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) announced that the tunnel would have to be renovated in the period from 2020 to 2025. To do this, it would either have to be closed for 900 days in a row or for 3.5 years for 280 days at a time, with the tunnel being available for main tourist traffic between the end of June and mid-September. Solutions would also be car loading and the rolling road , although it is advantageous that the Gotthard base tunnel of the railway was opened in 2016 .
Instead of partial closures, diversions or car loading, the Federal Council recommended on June 27, 2012 that a second tube of the Gotthard road tunnel should be built. This enables the first tube to be completely closed for the renovation, which will take several years, and is considered the best solution according to the variants presented. In addition, the expansion is justified with the increasing security. The construction time is specified in the plans as 2020 to 2027, the costs are 2.8 billion Swiss francs, one billion francs more than a pure renovation. On September 26, 2014, the Council of States and the National Council passed a law that allows the construction of a second tunnel tube. 75,872 people entitled to vote took up the referendum against this (50,000 people entitled to vote are required). The change in the law and thus the construction of a second tube was approved in the referendum on February 28, 2016 with a yes-vote of around 57 percent. The federal government expects construction to start around 2020 and a construction time of seven years. The traffic will then be directed through the new tube, and the old tube will be rehabilitated for around three years. Then both tubes are opened in single-lane operation. In the event of objections, the construction project will be delayed.
Even with two tubes, only one lane can be used in each direction, because according to Article 84 of the Federal Constitution, road capacity in the Alpine region cannot be increased. Any loosening of this provision and thus a constitutional amendment is subject to the mandatory referendum .
safety
At intervals of around 750 meters there are alternating breakdown bays 3 meters wide and 41 meters long. Every 250 meters there are shelters with permanent overpressure ventilation that can accommodate 60 people and are connected to the rescue tunnel. This is located east of the road tunnel at a center distance of about 30 meters and is 2.6 meters wide and a maximum of 3.1 meters high. Fire extinguishers and emergency telephones are installed every 125 meters. The FM programs are interrupted every 20 minutes and an announcement follows in German, Italian, French and English.
Accidents
Between 1980 and the end of 2004 there were a total of 875 accidents with a total of 30 fatalities, the most serious of which on October 24, 2001, when two trucks collided with a fire in the tunnel. Eleven people died in the accident. The tunnel was then closed for two months for renovation work, and for a short time a rail loading facility for passenger cars was put back into operation. For safety reasons, trucks were only transported through the railway tunnel until the repair was complete.
Since 2002 the number of accidents has decreased considerably. According to the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO), since the renovation after the fire disaster in 2001, there have only been between 7 and 14 accidents per year; before the disaster, the number was between 44 and 68 accidents per year in the period from 1995 to 2001.
The last major accident with fatalities occurred in December 2017. A car with a German license plate got into oncoming traffic and collided with a truck. There were 2 dead and 5 injured.
Drop counter system
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In order to ensure a safe distance of around 150 m for the trucks, the access for trucks on both sides is controlled by traffic lights that let two to three trucks per minute drive off from a small waiting room at the tunnel entrance. Heavy traffic to and from Ticino is allowed to drive directly to these waiting rooms, while transit traffic is buffered in larger waiting rooms in the valley. With this system, the passage is limited to a maximum of 3000 to 3500 trucks per day, after up to 5500 truck journeys were previously counted per day.
When Knutwiler height is a temporary waiting room that is set up as needed. In order to have a better flow of traffic even in a waiting room, the motorway will be widened in the Knutwiler Höhe area.
A heavy traffic center has been set up in the canton of Uri. There controls are carried out by the police. There is also a drop system there.
See also
- Alpine protection in Article 84 of the Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation
literature
- Baudirektion Uri (Ed.): The Gotthard Road Tunnel: Portrait of the longest road tunnel in the world , Altdorf 1980.
- Swiss engineer and architect , several contributions; Anthology 1980; Pp. 795-899
Web links
- Gotthard road tunnel - information from the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication
- Gotthard road tunnel on the ETHorama platform
- Official website of the management
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Gotthard road tunnel. Tunnel systems. Retrieved January 4, 2013 .
- ↑ Annual results 2012 (therein: measuring point no. 150 Gotthard tunnel (UR) ). Federal Roads Office , August 29, 2013, accessed on March 19, 2014 .
- ↑ Baudirektion Uri (ed.): The Gotthard road tunnel: portrait of the longest road tunnel in the world , Altdorf 1980.
- ↑ a b Gotthard road tunnel. Lines. Retrieved January 4, 2013 .
- ^ Gotthard road tunnel. Construction process. Retrieved January 4, 2013 .
- ^ Gotthard road tunnel. Chronology. Retrieved January 4, 2013 .
- ↑ Baudirektion Uri (ed.): The Gotthard road tunnel: portrait of the longest road tunnel in the world , Altdorf 1980, p. 72.
- ↑ The Small Inquiry: Is it really around 35 degrees in the Gotthard Tunnel? Retrieved January 4, 2013 .
- ↑ Elisalex Henckel: Gotthard renovation - Revenge of the devil ; Article on welt.de from May 1, 2012: «The Gotthard tunnel must be completely renovated by 2020 at the latest. [...] In a report published in December 2010, the government in Bern expects to have to close the tunnel for around 900 days so that all necessary repairs can be carried out. "
- ↑ ALPENTRANSITBÖRSE GOTTHARDTUNNEL (IN PLANNING) ( Memento from May 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Federal Roads Office FEDRO: Rehabilitation of the Gotthard road tunnel: Federal Council presents basic report ; Report of December 17, 2010
- ↑ Gotthard tunnel will be renovated in ten years ; Article in the Tages-Anzeiger on August 7, 2008
- ↑ Federal Council wants second tube for Gotthard road tunnel . SF Swiss television. June 27, 2012. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013. Retrieved on June 27, 2012.
- ↑ Database of the Federal Assembly
- ↑ Announcement of the Federal Chancellery of February 17, 2015
- ↑ Federal Roads Office FEDRO: Second Gotthard road tube
- ↑ BV Art. 84
- ↑ 10 years after the Gotthard Inferno. October 24, 2011, accessed May 12, 2013 .
- ↑ Five years after the fire disaster on the Gotthard - is the tunnel safer today? (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved May 12, 2013 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ tagesschau.de: Deaths in an accident in the Gotthard tunnel. Retrieved December 13, 2017 (German).
- ^ RP ONLINE: Cause still unclear: Serious accident in the Gotthard tunnel - two dead. Retrieved December 13, 2017 .
