2006 - ACTIVITY REPORT

The Swiss Tunnelling Society has succesfully held the Swiss Tunnel Congress in June 2006 in Lucerne.This event will be up-graded in the coming years to be an outstanding show case for the competence of the Swiss Tunnelling Industry. Additionally regular contacts with neighbouring countries and the ITA were kept .

The Swiss Tunnel Society has no standing scheme of working groups. Such groups are formed on demand. In the last year, a national WG has worked on standards. The Swiss Tunnel Society published a new set of standards on tunnelling representing the latest state of the art in Switzerland, which also was applied for the design and the constructions of the two base tunnels through the Alps (Lötschberg and Gotthard Basetunnel). These standards are available in German, French and English.

Lötschberg Base Tunnel : The new 35 km long Lötschberg Tunnel will be going under operation in May 2007 as the first of the two new Alp-crossing Railway Links. Currently all the mechanical and electrical equipment is installed and first test runs with highspeed trains going up to 260 km/h are carried out. After commissioning the travel time between Switzerland and Italy will drop considerably. The construction of the Lötschberg Base Tunnel was very succesfull and both financially and time wise in schedule. Further details see the website

Gotthard Base Tunnel : The Gotthard Base Tunnel is the world longest tunnel. Construction started in 1995 with intermediate attacks , in 2002 with the main drives and the tunnel will see the last breakthrough in 2011. Heading is progressing well and more than 50% of the tunnel are excaveted. The tunnel will go under operation in 2016. Further details see the website 

Ceneri Base Tunnel : The Ceneri Base Tunnel is – together with the Gotthard Base Tunnel - part of the new Alp-crossing Railway Link. The first lots for the excavation of access galleries have been tendered out in 2006.

Other tunnel projects in Switzerland: the list of tunnels under design or construction sees many more projects. To mention just a few of them:

Design stage: -N4, Läntigen und Morschacher; -N8 Brünig und Kaiserstuhl

Under construction: - N1c, Aescher, Eggrain, Hafnerberg; - N2, Nordtangente Basel, Schlund, Spier, Kirchenwald; - N4, Flüeler, Uetliberg; - N8, Aecherli, Giswil, Umfahrung Lungern; - N16, Pré Boivin, Moutier, Raimeux, Roche St-Jean, Banné, La Beuchille, Perche

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2005 - ACTIVITY REPORT

During the year 2005 the Swiss Tunnelling Society has organized and carried out three successful events:

• The conference about the underground works in Lausanne, held in April 2006 and organised in joint-venture with the Swiss Society of Soil and Rock Mechanics. The main topic has been the new Metro project under the city of Lausanne with all its related accessory works.

• Swiss Tunnel Congress (formerly AlpTransit Conference) in June 2006. This annual main event has attracted more than 700 delegates and took place in the prestigious Lucerne Congress Hall. The congress dealt with general and technical features of the AlpTransit basis tunnels at the Lötschberg and at the Gotthard. 14 papers have been presented and the delegates have got a lot of interesting information about these two enormous works, which are in full progress. The congress has been combined with extended visits at the four main sites of the Gotthard-Basistunnel. The papers of this remarkable conference are available at the Swiss Society of Architects and Engineers (Documentation No. D 0215).

• In fall a site visit at the Islisbergtunnel along the new highway that will link Zurich with central Switzerland has been carried out. The visitors followed the explanations of the responsible staff for design and execution and could visit all the relevant working places, starting from the TBM heading, as far back as the internal concrete works of this modern and perfectly organized project.

Collaboration with international agencies took place at two levels:

• The traditional meetings with the tunnelling societies of the surrounding countries have been held in April with the SIG (Italy), in September with the DAUB (Germany/Austria) and in October with the AFTES (France). Beside the general exchange of information the scope of these meetings included also the discussions in common working groups on special topics (e.g. the notice on safety on tunnel sites). A special international event of the year has been the commonly organized International Tunnel Congress, carried out in October 2005 in Chambéry, France. Under the lead of the AFTES, this congress has been organized in joint-venture with the National agencies of Switzerland, Spain and Italy. The presentations allowed an interesting analysis of differences and similitudes between the various Alpine basis-tunnels, which are planned and ongoing in the concerned countries. 

• Swiss activities related to the ITA, apart from the ongoing support of the secretariat in Lausanne, focused on the leading roles in some working groups (WG 6 and 19) and on the collaboration at the training course, held in May 2005 in Istanbul.  

During the year 2005, the society started with the edition of the new bulletin, which appears twice a year. In addition a general information flyer has been created, which is available at the secretariat in German and in French.

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2004 - ACTIVITY REPORT

Beside the various events, which encountered great interest throughout, the society has dealt, in the year 2004, with two main topics:

• The first one has been the conclusion of the agreement procedure and the validation of the renewed Swiss Tunnelling codes. This milestone has been combined with an introductory conference, held in October 2004 in Berne. The new codes, promoted and elaborated by experienced staff of the society, is an updated and exhaust basis for the design and the construction of tunnels. The standards also can be helpful in the international sphere, since they will soon be available in English.

• The second important achievement has been the definition of the announced new orientation of the society. Several improvements have been decided and prepared for realisation: • The yearly held “AlpTransit conference” will pass over to the “Swiss Tunnelling Conference”, including general topics of Swiss tunnelling; in addition to this, the society will carry out biennial special training conferences. •The issue of an information bulletin twice a year, apart from a new general documentation of the society.

• Active promotion of research projects in the field of tunnelling, according to the research strategy of the federal board of road construction.

• In January 2004, a site excursion has been carried out to the Kirchenwaldtunnel in central Switzerland. The participants had the ideal occasion to follow on one single site practically every relevant execution phases of a complex road tunnel system.

• In June 2004, more than 500 delegates have followed the third “AlpTransit Conference”, which took place in Interlaken. It has been rounded up by attractive social events and interesting site visits at the Lötschberg Base Tunnel. The papers of the conference are reported in the SIA documentation volume no. D 0202.

• At the general assembly in May in Zurich, the election of four new members in the board took place. The event has been enriched by the presentation of Dr. G. Lombardi about a theme of great actuality: Tunnel construction costs.

• International contacts have been extended and cultivated by various contributions of Swiss tunnel engineers in the ITA work groups, as well as by means of the traditional meetings among the society boards of the neighbouring countries. This may also be taken as an opportunity to mention the excellent relation and friendship with the ITA secretariat staff in Lausanne.

FGU Activity Report

2003 - ACTIVITY REPORT

The activities of the STS, Swiss Tunneling Society, during the year 2003 were focused on: publication of technical information about current projects, by means of conferences and site excursions, upgrading the tunnel guidelines, contacts and exchange of information with the tunneling organisations of the neighbouring countries, participation in ITA activities.

The competence groups within the board of STS followed their ordinary and current activities, whereas the special groups, who took care of the renewal of the Swiss tunneling guidelines, undertook a great effort. The guidelines will be translated from German to French and Italian and edited before summer 2004.

UNDERGROUND ACTIVITIES IN SWITZERLAND

Actually the main tunnel construction works in Switzerland are taken place in the following areas:

• progress of the deep long rail tunnels under the Alps, the Lötschberg-Base Tunnel, where the excavation works are soon coming to an end, and the Gotthard-Base Tunnel, where the construction of the main tubes is going along from the southern portal and form all three intermediate attacks.

• ongoing sites of important highway tunnels, as for the Zurich Western by-pass, but also some tunnels in the Jura region, as well as several mountain tunnels in Central and Eastern Switzerland.

• Refurbishment and upgrading of several middle-aged and highly stressed highway tunnels, partly alpine (Gotthard, S. Bernardino), partly near urban areas (Belchen, Baregg, Glion).

Hagerbach Test Gallery

Over the last 30 years, the Hagerbach Test Gallery Ltd. at Sargans (Switzerland) has developed an underground infrastructure of tunnels (with cross sections ranging from 10 to 120 m2) totalling approximately 5 km in length. From the very outset, the tunnel structures have been used for research and development work on materials...>>

2002 - ACTIVITY REPORT

Le tableau suivant donne la situation des tunnels actuellement en cours de réalisation en Suisse.

En outre, en ce qui concerne AlpTransit :

• Au tunnel de base du Lötschberg 75% du tunnel est creusé. Pour la technique ferroviaire, sans la signalisation, les travaux ont été adjugés et les contrats signés. La date d'ouverture du tunnel est toujours prévue en 2007.

• Au tunnel de base du Gothard, quatre des cinq lots principaux ont été adjugés. Les travaux sont en cours. La date d'ouverture est prévue en 2014.

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