The world's longest railway tunnel

[swissranger]

Nothing to do with Bumpsides but maybe also interesting for you guys. Friday 15th of October 2:00 pm (CET) is the breakthrough of the new railway tunnel thru the Gotthard. The tunnel has a lenght of 57 kilometers (35.6 miles) and will be the longest in the world. If you are interested in, check out the following link:
http://www.neat.ch/en/?no_cache=1

Roman

[amishbuggy]

You guys do some crazy tunnel and bridge work, was that horrible highway tunnel crash and fire a few years back in Switzerland?

[hazelnut]

Pat, I think that was the one from england to france. When the machines were finished boring on that one they just dug into the side and buryed them if i remember right. 36 miles of tunnel is a lot of boreing, How long has it taken from start to finish ?

[amishbuggy]

I think it was Switzerland, they had just opened up a state of the art highway thru some mountain and a tractor trailer caught fire like in the middle of the thing, which caused a chain reaction crash and a whole bunch of people burnt to death. I'll have to do a memory recall, I use to be good at remembering things.

[swissranger]

There were two terrible tunnel accidents in the last ten years. One at the Mont Blanc Tunnel with 39 victims thru fire. This tunnel links France and Italy, has a lenght of 7.25 miles and is made for cars and trucks. The accident investigation team assumed that the reason for the fire was a cigarette which was flying in the air filter of a truck. Bad thing was that the truck's load was margarine which get burned.
The other big accident has happend in the Gotthard Tunnel for cars and trucks (lenght: 10 miles). 2001,Two trucks crashed together and get burned. 11 persons lost their life.

The major boring works at the new railway tunnel have started in 1999. Now five feets are left and waiting for the breakthrough. This will happen today with a big celebration.

By the way, the chisels of the bore head, which has a diameter of 31 feeds and runs 6 rpm, were optimized in minig institute in Colorado.

Roman

[Mancar1]

That is interesting, thanks. My wife says the tunnel is almost as long as some of the stories I tell.