Still feeling the Bertha blues? Just imagine how Switzerland feels
Jun 1, 2016, 10:18 AM | Updated: 10:26 am
If the anticipation for the Seattle tunnel is killing you, just think how people in Switzerland must have felt for the past 20 years.
The world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel officially opened in the Swiss Alps on Wednesday. The Gotthard Base Tunnel is 35 miles long and, at some points, 1,000 feet deep.
Related: Completed Seattle tunnel will be “one of the safer structures in town”
Construction on the tunnel began in 1996. That means the three tunneling machines were able to excavate about 1.75 miles per year.
Now compare that to the Seattle tunnel that will replace the aging Alaskan Way Viaduct. Bertha the boring machine has to go a total of approximately 1.75 miles. Work on the tunnel began more than two years ago.
Of course Bertha, with a cutterhead diameter of 57.5 feet, has to bore a tunnel that will be used by thousands of drivers a day; not by a train.
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