by Zita Edwards
About a month ago 17 years of construction and
engineering drew to a close with the opening of the Gotthard Tunnel. Although
originally sketched in 1947 the Gotthard Tunnel has only recently been
completed, with its engineering and design journey spanning over generations.
After a total of €11 billion the dual 57km base tunnel has been completed
connecting North and South Europe deep beneath the Alps. The economic benefits
from the structure will be significant, also the potential to merge languages,
cultures and people will greatly benefit mainland Europe.
To celebrate the opening of this grand tunnel Switzerland
produced two opening ceremonies at the North port with the President Johann
Schneider-Ammann declaring the tunnel officially open. These shows were quite
spectacular because of their bizarre nature. Witnessed by heads of state
including Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel, the main ceremony directed by
Volkar Hesse opened with an army of people dressed as construction workers
marching to the beat of a drum before a group of half-naked dancers paraded
through.
Although designed to reflect Swiss culture the eccentric
performance included scenes of workers climbing and falling off mountainsides,
people wearing extra large heads, masks and skulls. Conforming more to Swiss
tradition a performer dressed as a mountain goat conducted what seemed to
replicate a spiritual ceremony, consistent with Swiss Christmas culture, and
local choirs and orchestras were invited to perform. Despite the spectacle
achieving its aim of being unforgettable the audience seemed to offer a
confused applause and questions arose around its legacy. The large winged
creature scene was meant to act as a tribute of remembrance to the nine workers
who died in the construction process, however this tribute seemed overly
sinister and not so respectable to the late workers.
Apart from the obvious engineering achievements and
records of the base tunnel it's precise engineering and scheduling also make it
special. It is often overlooked that this tunnel is one of a kind since the
rock excavated is extremely hard and usual tunnelling techniques may not be
viable. The extensive focus on safety in the Gotthard Tunnel makes it unique,
by creating two separate one-way tunnels in opposite directions the is no way
the trains can collide even when they reach speeds of 155mph. Also, the
cross-linking escape tunnels are every few hundred meters reducing the
probability of disasters such as the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire. The surveillance
and automated detectors also provide better warnings to commuters of gas leaks
and fire.
Although we've celebrated the opening of the base tunnel,
the overall planned network is not complete. By 2020 Italy hopes to finish its
planned linking networks and further developments towards Germany are forecast
to last at least 20 years. With this route cutting journey times by hours the
European community can become a lot closer and diverse.
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