41–50 of 51 posts
It looks like the trains through this tunnel will be all-electric. I wonder why they went with a 15kV power system instead of a modern 25kV system? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_kV_AC_railway_electrificati... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25_kV_AC_railway_electrificati...
Perhaps for compatibility with the rest of the Swiss rail network?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_systems_for_el...
Gotthard Tunnel The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is a railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland expected to open on 2 June 2016. - Length: 35.4 mi - Cost: $10.3 billion - Construction: 1996 - 2016 (est) Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (known locally as the Bay Bridge) is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. - Length: 4.46 miles - Cost: $6.5 billion - Construction: 2002 - 2…
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The GBT is 94 miles, right? I think the Swiss achieve these costs through economies of scale. There are tunnels throughout the country so they can achieve greater efficiencies at 5-10x of those in specific metro areas in the US. I remember when they were debating a tunnel under Tysons Corner in Virginia, the largest office park in the Washington-Baltimore area, the estimate came in at $800 miles for 4 miles and was c…
"Economies of scale" when tunneling through solid rock?
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Not so much in this particular case — the purpose of the tunnel is to reduce heavy truck traffic through environmentally sensitive areas. The tunnel is explicitly built to satisfy a goal of transforming truck freight to rail freight. The fast passenger time is only listed as a side benefit.
Not to mention electric is not viable for long haul heavy trucking (for the foreseeable future).
With existing intermodal systems, there's already something somewhat resembling electrified long-haul heavy trucking, though largely in Europe. For various reasons, the US has little electrified freight, and doesn't forsee it for the forseable future, though it's clearly technically feasible.
There are several other possibilities for electrified freight, though battery-EV is almost certainly out of the picture. IIRC BMW have experimented with a battery-powered EV tractor-trailer, but it's used exclusively for local delivery at low speeds (~40 kph IIRC) at a range of ~5-10 km. A very limited pilot.
Self-driving cargo vehicles capable of "training" on highways, with catenary or similar feeds, could offer long-haul separable vehicle cargo capacity. I'm not aware of any serious plans for such a system though, and it would require both massive investment in vehicles and roadways.
Present planning at the US EIA is for natural gas fueled cargo -- both truck and rail.
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Why is this "seriously maybe the greatest work of engineering on Earth"? It looks like straight forward rock tunneling to me. The alps have good rock that the industry has a lot of experience mining through. Don't get me wrong, the length is impressive but the diameter (10m) is not crazy nor is the ground bad.
What makes this project incredible is how it is dug at the base of the mountain, instead of higher up. That makes it the deepest tunnel, dug under 2,500m of rock at its max. When you have almost two miles of mountain weighing down on you… pressure is intense. The rock has different compositions along the way, some parts have to be dug with boring machines, some parts with explosives. The project has been in construct…
There's a (kind of cheesy) documentary about the construction of the tunnel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaTN_R1b00I I skipped through some of the slower-paced sections, and mostly just gawked at the machinery.
Gotthard Tunnel The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is a railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland expected to open on 2 June 2016. - Length: 35.4 mi - Cost: $10.3 billion - Construction: 1996 - 2016 (est) Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (known locally as the Bay Bridge) is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. - Length: 4.46 miles - Cost: $6.5 billion - Construction: 2002 - 2…
ETM made software called PVSS, and it was renamed to WinCC OA when ETM got bought by Siemens. The previous Siemens software, WinCC, was the victim of the Stuxnet worm. Hopefully ETM's is a bit more secure!
This is public knowledge, not insider information: http://www.etm.at/index_e.asp?sname=div_nw_0209_gbt_e.asp
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is this "seriously maybe the greatest work of engineering on Earth"? It looks like straight forward rock tunneling to me. The alps have good rock that the industry has a lot of experience mining through. Don't get me wrong, the length is impressive but the diameter (10m) is not crazy nor is the ground bad.
What makes this project incredible is how it is dug at the base of the mountain, instead of higher up. That makes it the deepest tunnel, dug under 2,500m of rock at its max. When you have almost two miles of mountain weighing down on you… pressure is intense. The rock has different compositions along the way, some parts have to be dug with boring machines, some parts with explosives. The project has been in construct…
And, as impressive, it's still on schedule and on budget.