Gotthard Base

Tunnel

MAY 17

Laiba Fatima
Noman Butt
Ahmad Bin Aslam
Simal Khan
Zaeem Thanvi

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Table of Contents

Introduction...............................................................................................................3
Background & Team.................................................................................................4
....................................................................................................................................4
Major Milestones & Stake holders............................................................................5
Challenges..................................................................................................................7
Lessons Learnt...........................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Gottard Base Tunnel which is ranked among the most advanced technology-based railway projects in

all over the world. This was the most extreme engineering project in history. No one has dared to try

thing like this before. The project entails a 57.09 kilometer (35.5 miles) long railway track that is

longest railway tunnel in all over the world. It is state of the art first ever flat tunnel track that is linked

through low-level route. It serves as the connecting track between Swiss communities in Erstfeld and

Bodio. The track while connecting the two places (Erstfled and Bodio) passes elow the Sedrun. The

project was opened on December 11, 2016. It serves as the model project that surpasses all the former

dimensions of technology-based projects in terms of length, engineering, tunnel length, and logistics.

The tunnel has become part of Alps project that includes Ceneri Base Tunnel which was opened on

September 3, 2020. The two makes New Railway Link along with the Lötschberg Base Tunnel.

The purpose behind the construction of the Gotthard Base Tunnel was to increase the local transport

capacity. The guiding force behind this project was to shift from the freight volumes from fright trucks

to freight trains. The Alpine barrier used for freight serves the purpose towards increasing the transport

capacity on the Rotterdam–Basel–Genoa corridor. The project not only reduces the significant danger

risk of fatal road crashes that entails the heavy traffic such as trucks, buses but also reduces the

environmental damage which is majorly caused by the heavy traffic. It also provides a fastest

connection between the canton of Ticino and those of rest of the cities of Switzerland.

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 Gotthard base tunnel

CLIENT Swiss Federal Railways (SBB, CFF, FFS)

PERFORMING Alp transit gotthard (the construction company)

ORGANIZATION Consortium of ABB and TLT Turbo for ventilation system
Siemens provided the tunnel control systems and fire protection
systems for the railway tunnel; NORMA supplied its proprietary
NORMA CONNECT FLEX pipe couplings to connect the rainwater
pipes in the tunnel. Datwyler supplied silicon sealing solutions for the
Gotthard Base Tunnel.

SCOPE
151.840km length, 57.09km line length, 57.104km track length
(east tunnel), 57.017km length (west tunnel), 2 single track
tubes, 1435mm (4ft 8.5 inch) standard track gauge, 15Kv
16.7Hz.

Operating speed- max speed 250km/h, operational speed

200km/h, passenger 100km/h

Highest elevation 549m, Lowest elevation 312m

Tunnel clearance 5.20m from top of rail to overhead

conductor.

COST $23 Billion

TIME 1999-2016 (17 years)

Project Technical Brief

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Background & Team
Because of Switzerland central location, each year 14 Million of cars and trucks from every corner of
Europe pass through Switzerland. In the current time the highways and roadways from Italy to
Germany on daily basis experience congestion, traffic blocks, and delays in travel mostly the reason
behind is heavy traffic. The heavy traffic mostly at night includes freight loads that also results in fatal
road accidents. To cater this problem and ease the traffic load and its dangerous impact on the
environment, obvious solution put more freight and passengers onto trains to reduce the number of
trucks and cars on the road but it isn't that simple the antiquated railway system is already jammed to
capacity. So the Swiss government planned this project to move the capacity from roads to railways
that majorly comprises of the railway tunnels. As a result, the existing rail lines can run more
efficiently and tunnel would not only solve the problems mentioned above but also help in shorting the
commute time. The work on the project started after the 1992 referendum to construct the Gotthard
Base Tunnel.

The infrastructure currently in the country dates back to the 1880s and it is estimated to be 1000 meters
above than the sea level. As a result, a referendum was called out to have public in confidence for this
mega project to construct a passageway that goes beneath the Alps and resulting in more fast and safe
commuting system.

The work on this project started four years after the referendum and preparatory works were started at
the Sedrun site. The team that was put on the task is described in the table below:

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Stake holders
The major stake holders of the project include:
 Swiss Federal Railways (SBB, CFF, FFS)
 Alp transit gotthard (the construction company)
 Dr. Renzo Simoni, CEO of Alp Transit
 Mapei UTT Svizzera (MAPEI coordination)
 Federal office of Transport
 Consortium of ABB and TLT turbo
 ALLPLAN (European vendor that deals with the Building Information Modeling (BIM)
solutions)
 Allianz Swiss (Geophysicist and risk consultant)
 Euler Hermes (acted as surety for drilling machines, securing prepayments and buyback of the
machines.)
 Swiss Government
 Siemens
 NORMA
 Simon Peggs (Project Manager)
 John Anderson (Tunnel Safety Consultant)
 EMI Rock Boring Laboratory
 Colorado School of Mines
 Consultants
 Contractors
 Suppliers contracted with ATG
 Public
 Employees
 Management

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Major Milestones
The major milestones that were achieved through this project are as follow with reference year.

 In 1882 the first ever Gotthard Base Tunnel that was 15 kilometer in length was opened. It

connected the Göschenen and Airolo.

 After almost a century in 1980s the Gotthard Road Tunned was inaugurated that was 16.2

kilometers in length.

 After almost a decade a new proposal was put forth focusing on the construction of a New

Railway Link that is based on the Alps and it includes Gotthard Base Tunnel. The swiss voters

through referendum approved this project.

 In 1998 the financial concept of the project was approved named FinöV.

 In 1999 the first drill was carried out and the blast cycle was initiated.

 In 2010 the breakthrough of the Gotthard base Tunnel happened

 And in 2016 the entering service of tunnel was started that linked Erstfeld and Bodio.

 Recently in 2020 the Central Base Tunnel entering service was initiated.

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Challenges & Solutions
There were many challenges that were reported during the executions and making of the project. Here
are six of the majors challenged that were highlighted along with the possible solutions:

1- Time Management

2- Précised Planning focusing on the geological uncertainties

3- Tunnel Safety

4- Mountain pressure

5- Financial Optimality

6- Safety assurance

Time Management:
The tunnel is divided into five sections to lessen the construction time and the place has been
excavated simultaneously from several sites. Excavation took place from the portals of Erstfeld o the
North side to the South side in Bodio. There three intermediate points that are being selected for attack:
1- Access tunnels through Amsteg
2- Access tunnels through Faido
3- The verticals shafts at Sedrun
This Excavating work started in 2002 of these two parallel track tunnels that are single track. The
excavating of the main tunnels, shafts, and access tunnels was done by the end of March 2011. The
total track length was 151.8km.

Précised Planning focusing on the geological uncertainties:

The humongous size of the project: Gotthard Base tunnel has a lot of affect on the planning part of the
project. The boring of the tunnels is a complex part and cutting extremely thick and segmented rocks is
no easy task. The walk on the tightrope between the planning and unpredictable disasters is huge.
Despite having great number of investigations many unforeseen difficulties happened that affected the
project progress.

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During the beginning of tunneling in the southern worksite in February 2003 the work was hampered
due to the rocks there. They were only able to drill up to 200 meters when this incident happened. The
tunneling teams were divided into two:
1- Sissi (S-210) this is on the eastern side
2- Heidi (S-211) this is on the western side
Both of the teams faced the geological disturbances. These zones were further named as Kakirite
zones. The securing of the excavated tunnel is another complex process since it is really difficult to
secure even a single meter tunnel that is excavated. These disturbance zones were at some places too
soft for the TBMs grippers and as a result the teams could not leave these sites until August 2003.

Tunnel Safety:
Another very difficult zone was a huge challenge for the teams to continue the work. This was named
as: The Piora Basin. This was a funnel shaped formation that was filled with sugar gained dolomite and
water. This was difficult to carve and excavate. It reached deep into the rock. As a result, this part of
the rock and drilling was carried out very carefully compared to the other rocks done so far. Although
existence of this part of the rock was very common yet it had to be studied very carefully. The reason
was obvious: no one had an idea about how far the funnel was into the mountain. They had to prepare
drills likewise based on the study of funnel. A horizontal tunnel whose length was estimated to be 5.5
kilometers was made and it stretched from cantonal road to the disturbance zone. This zone had to be
penetrated and this was done in 1996.
To cater this problem 19 inclined drills were made from the exploratory tunnel to reach the vicinity of
the base tunnel. The rocks were hit hard, and drill cores, temperatures, and seismic results brought the
geologists to conclude that the bottom of the Piora Basin is sealed with cap rock. Finally, on October
12, 2008 the Piora Basin was crossed out from the list.

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Mountain Pressure:
The pressure at some points in various sections was so high that the normal method used to excavate
the tunnel was of no use. The target dimensions had been limited due to limited pressure. The
mountain in most conditions deformed and it released more pressure likewise.

The stability as a result was affected when the deformation was allowed and in critical zones the
Gotthard Bae Tunnel work was hampered. A counterforce was needed against the mountain to stop the
cavity from reclosing completely.

The solution devised to cater the problem here was to use telescopically slidable rings. Using this
method, the two telescopically slidable steel half-rings were connected to form full rings. This would
be hep in targeting the tunnel cross sections and in excavation. The rings would simple and slowly
slide together to maintain the mountain pressure and as a result move until the ends meet and stabilize
each other.

Costs Risk:
In the early phases of the project, the risk spread was derived from the precision demanded by the SIA
standards and legal judgements– a method which is questionable for mega-projects with a long
duration of construction. For such special projects, the cost spread already has to be derived from
individual risk analyses from the preliminary design phase, and these have to recognize the long
duration of construction in particular. Such a method applied to the early stages of a mega-project with
a construction volume of more than CHF 1 billion would normally show considerably higher risk
potential than the precision figures stated in the standard. This consideration was finally accepted by
the FOT, and the cost spreads for the early project phases were increased. The NRLA dispatch from
1990, however, went considerably further and described a cost spread of –10%/+30% to +40%. As
shown by current experience, that assumption was certainly justified and the considerations at that time
can be recognized as a good example. In the course of 2006, the management board of ATG decided to
evaluate the risk portfolio for the remaining duration of the project in detail together with the project
engineers. This method of consideration led to an increase both of the presumed final costs and the risk
potential.

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In addition, the risk analysis based on a deterministic risk evaluation carried out in 2007 was backed up
with a second study based on a probabilistic approach. The results were negotiated with the FOT and
this led to changes to the financing of the NRLA project, which restored the finance lacking for the
risk potential from change orders by the FOT and dangers that occurred.

Spread
Phase Cost document
Original Actual
Preliminary design Cost estimate +15 %/–15 % +25 %/–25 %
Approval design Cost estimate according to approval design +15 %/–10 % +15 %/–15 %
Detailed design Cost estimate according to design for construction +10 %/–10 % +10 %/–10 %
Design for construction Contract +7 %/–0 % +7 %/–5 %
Invoicing Final invoice +/–0 % +/–0 %

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Lessons Learnt
The project of Gotthard Base Tunnel was not a simple linear project to work on. It involved many
factors and major factors that were of focus were:
1- Quality Management
2- Time Management
3- Financial Optimality
4- Cost Management
5- Risk Management
6- Information Management
Out of the six factors mentioned above the major factors that were of importance were Risk and
Information management. As both of them served as the basis for all the key success areas.
The federal government through the use of efficient organizational model for the first time in history
generated the significant knowledge and understanding on interdisciplinary basis.

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There are numerous success factors that lead to the basis of this project:

Frist, being the management that simply managed the project through timely critique from the client.
The control was given to the client (Government) through proper and regular updates. Secondly, the
transparency of the project was kept. It was made sure that there was parliamentary insight and control.
Thirdly, the roles of the stakeholders were properly defined may it be client, contractor, or operator.
There was a set boundary. Lastly, the project execution was made efficient through wiry organization
by using proper communication pathways. As a result, the decision-making process was kept as simple
as possible.

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References
 Gotthard Base Tunnel. (2021, January 11). Retrieved January 13, 2021, from
https://www.railwaytechnology.com/projects/gotthard-base-tunnel/
 Gotthard Base Tunnel. (n.d.). Retrieved January 13, 2021, from
https://www.herrenknecht.com/en/references/referencesdetail/gotthard-base-tunnel/
 Ehrbar, Heinz. (2020). Gotthard Base Tunnel: PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT – THE MOST
IMPORTANT INSTRUMENT FOR SUCCESSFUL PROJECT CONTROL.
 Gotthard tunnel: World's longest and deepest rail tunnel opens in Switzerland. (2016, June
01). Retrieved January 13, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36423250
 THE GROUNDBREAKING TUNNEL. (n.d.). Retrieved January 13, 2021, from
https://www.allplan.com/references/engineering/gotthardbasetunnel/
 AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd, Project Handbook, 2nd edition,
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
342083290_Gotthard_Base_Tunnel_PROJECT_RISK_MANAGEMENT__THE_MOST_IMPORTAN
T_INSTRUMENT_FOR_SUCCESSFUL_PROJECT_CONTROL

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