GOTTHARD ROAD TUNNEL, THE WORLD'S 5TH-LONGEST

Joseph de Ca'th Lon at the Gotthard Road Tunnel

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of Joseph de Ca'th Lon, one of her best and closest friends. Joseph is Swiss and he always talks with The Grandma about Swiss life, culture, history, architecture and constructions. They have been talking about the Gotthard Road Tunnel, a tunnel that runs across the Alps from Göschenen in the canton of Uri at its northern portal, to Airolo in Ticino to the south and was opened on a day like today in 1980.

The Gotthard Road Tunnel in Switzerland runs from Göschenen in the canton of Uri at its northern portal, to Airolo in Ticino to the south, and is 16.9 kilometres in length below the St Gotthard Pass, a major pass of the Alps.

At time of construction, in 1980, it was the longest road tunnel in the world; it is currently the fifth-longest. Although it is a motorway tunnel, part of the A2 from Basel to Chiasso, it consists of only one bidirectional tube with two lanes. With a maximum elevation of 1,175 metres at the tunnel's highest point, the A2 motorway has the lowest maximum elevation of any direct north-south road through the Alps.

The tunnel rises from the northern portal at Göschenen (1,080 m) and the culminating point is reached after approximately 8 kilometres. After two or three more kilometres, the border between the cantons of Uri and Ticino is passed; after another 7 kilometres, the tunnel ends at the southern portal near to Airolo (1,146 m). The journey takes about 13 minutes by car, the maximum speed being 80 km/h.

The Gotthard Road Tunnel is one of the three tunnels that connect the Swiss Plateau to southern Switzerland and run under the Gotthard Massif, the two other being railway tunnels, the Gotthard Tunnel (1882) and the Gotthard Base Tunnel (2016).

More information: Route You

All three tunnels bypass the Gotthard Pass, an important trade route since the 13th century. The pass road culminates about 1,000 metres above the tunnel, at a height of 2,106 metres, and is only passable in summer.

In response to the automobile boom in Switzerland and other things, the Swiss government gave approval in July 1969 for the construction of the 17-kilometre Gotthard Road tunnel. The tunnel would be longer than any existing road tunnel, and would provide a year-round road link from the Swiss Plateau to southern Switzerland, and from northern to southern Europe as well, to be used in place of the Gotthard Pass.

The tunnel was built roughly parallel to the old railway tunnel, with portals a few hundred metres away from those of the railway. Prior to the opening of the tunnel, cars were transported through the nearby railway tunnel on car shuttle trains. Following the catastrophic fire in the road tunnel in 2001, car shuttle trains resumed operations for a few weeks.

The Gotthard Road Tunnel, Switzerland

The tunnel was opened on 5 September 1980. It remains a single bore tunnel with just one lane operating in each direction. It has four large ventilation shafts and an additional side gallery between 10 and 18 metres from the main tunnel, having its own independent ventilation system in order to facilitate the cutting of a second tunnel, should future traffic levels require it.

In March 2014, the Swiss Government approved a bill to allow the building of a second road tunnel. Construction is scheduled to start in 2020, with the cost estimated at almost CHF 3 billion.

The effects of even small fires in a confined space like a tunnel are extremely serious because of the inability of gases and heat to disperse. For instance, carbon monoxide is highly toxic at very low concentrations; having this trapped in a confined space allows concentrations to build well beyond a fatal level. Carbon monoxide can trigger a clinical response at a level as low as 100 parts per million. The tunnel was closed for two months after the accident for repair and cleaning, reopening 21 December 2001.

To improve safety after the fire, no more than 150 trucks per hour are allowed to enter the tunnel.

More information: Lombardi

The Gotthard Rail Tunnel, close but separate from the expressway tunnel, handles rail traffic on the north-south line in Switzerland. It was opened in 1882. In this category it is no longer the record-holder. The Seikan Tunnel in Japan and the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France are both in excess of 50 km.

Under construction since 2002 and opened on 1 June 2016, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, a second rail tunnel, 57 km long, is the world's longest. It was built for the use of trains travelling from northern Switzerland to the Ticino area and beyond.

Driving along The Gotthard Road Tunnel

The Gotthard Tunnel is the core and culminating point of the A2 motorway in Switzerland, running south from Basel through the tunnel down to Chiasso on the border with Italy. Traffic flows through only one tunnel, which carries traffic both ways, with each direction allocated one lane. The tunnel's speed limit is 80 km/h.

Heavily used, the tunnel often has traffic jams, on both the north and south ends. In contrast, another tunnel through the Alps, the San Bernardino road tunnel as part of the A13 in the canton of Graubünden further east, is relatively uncongested and shorter.

Another point of note, that even in winter, the inside temperature of the tunnel can reach 38 °C while travelling through it.

Construction on a second, parallel road tunnel was started. In first instance it was only built for safety: an escape route in case of accidents. This second tunnel can be built out to a full road tunnel, allowing four lanes of traffic. Efforts to do this have failed, blocked by political resistance. The Alpine Initiative for the protection of the Alpine region from transit traffic, which raised barriers against road tunnel construction, was initially blocked by the Swiss Parliament.

A February 1994 Alpine Initiative passed with 52% of the vote, and Parliament upheld the referendum twice through the 1990s. The pro-tunnel Avanti Initiative brought a referendum to voters in February 2004, which was rejected by 62.8%.

More information: EBP

The Swiss government has decided to upgrade the second tunnel into a full road tunnel in order to allow for the necessary reconstruction of the first road tunnel. 

Once the works on the first tunnel are finished, the Swiss government plans to operate one single lane in each tunnel northbound traffic in the newly constructed tunnel, southbound traffic in the renovated one in order to maintain the current tunnel overall capacity, in compliance with the Swiss constitutional norm that forbids a further growth of the traffic capacity across the Alps.

The reconstruction would have lasted for several years in any variant -one variant would push the traffic over the mountain pass, another proposed to load the vehicles onto trains with a new terminal, a third would close the tunnel for several months every year over time range of a decade.

All of these have their drawbacks and the usage of the second tunnel was chosen as the best option to allow for the reconstruction. Further usage of both tunnels was subject to a popular referendum that was held in February 2016, where it was approved.

The actual upgrade mining of the second road tunnel would last from 2020 to 2027 at a cost of 2.7 billion francs for the whole project including the following reconstruction of the first tunnel.

More information: Swiss Family Travel

The light you see at the end of the tunnel

is the front of an oncoming train.

David Lee Roth