And you'll be please to note that, though 54 kilometres will be dug with Tunnel Boring Machines, 4 kilometres, due to the strata, will be blown away with explosives. Hoorah!
Tunnel Men examine the first blast on the Porta Alpina
Tunnel Men will be removing 24 million tons of rock, about the equivalent of 5 times the Great Pyramid on Giza
the Great Pyramid at Giza
Which if hollow could accommodate the five cathedrals of: St Peter's, Rome, Florence, Milan, Westminster and St Paul's, London.
Westminster Abbey, London
So, technically, and with a future increase in the following of certain Western Orthodox teachings, 25 big cathedrals could be built with what comes out the tunnel. But a lot of the spoil is being used to make an island in a lake instead.
There are two Tunnel Boring Machines, Gabi I and Gabi II weighing in at around 500 tonnes each.
Gabi I
latest update from Tunnel Men at Amsteg:
On October 16, 2006, the core machine was transported almost 11 km back to the assembly cavern on the construction railway. The journey was extremely successful and was completed in only five hours. The cutting-head centre, main bearing, and base frame of the TBM will now be transported out of the tunnel by lowloader. Dismantling of TBM Gabi I is 95% complete. To repair the collapse at TM 118,670, drilling work for the injection pipes is continuing. Dismantling of TBM Gabi II has already started. The status of the kicker construction sites is as follows: west tunnel 8,200 metres, east tunnel 6,250 metres.
the tunnel face after Gabi II was reversed out
Meanwhile on the Faido section of the tunnel concreting of the TBM driving invert in both single-track tunnels, and of the reinforced base inverts in the tunnel branchoff west south, is still in progress, you’ll be pleased to note.
Once the Conventional Driving [a term used by Tunnel Men to signify the relentless forward thrust of the massive TBM] is complete and the Tunnel Boring Machines have be removed, steel arches are inserted and the whole thing sprayed with concrete - made out of the graded spoil from the tunnelling no less.
reinforcing the Sedrun section
Guess what Tunnel Men call the fallen, shattered, blasted rock after an explosion?
Muck.
You don’t mess with Tunnel Men.
