A new railway link through the Alps passed a key milestone on September 18, when mining crews broke the last diaphragm of a 57.5 kilometer (35.7 miles) explorer tunnel connecting Italy and Austria.
Supervised by the owner BBT SE, an Austrian-Italian public entity established for the project, the Brenner Base Tunnel aims to significantly reduce railway travel times and will link northern Italian railway networks to an existing railway line in Innsbruck, Austria. BBT is said to be the longest underground underground railway connection in the world when completed, and the first dedicated railway tunnel that unites Italy and Austria.
Photo courtesy bbt se
The dignitaries of Austria, Italy and the European Union were available to the event. “Today, Europe is approaching through Italy and Austria,” said BBT SE, Gilberto Cardola and Martin Gradnitzer in a statement. “In recent years they have been difficult, but as a management team we have made this milestone possible.”
Related
Brenner’s tunners conquer the peaks and valleys in the Alps
The project has fallen behind its original programming and outside its estimated budget. Currently, it is about to end in 2032, about 16 years ago, and cost approximately 8.5 billion euros, about 2.5 billion euros on the budget.
When complete, the longest tunnel of the project will be 64 km. The exploratory tunnel ends this month runs below where the final tunnel will be bored. To date, approximately 200 km of tunnels have been excavated for the Brenner Base Tunnel Project since the official start of construction in 2008.
