BASF MEYCO Fireshield 1350 fire protection mortar was used on this project   Invitation to tender for first 1.2 km of 16.5 km section of proposed 56.7 km AlpTransit. August 1999.   Invitation to tender for construction of two access tunnels in soft ground, lengths 410 m and 420 m. Sept 1999.Open invitation to tender for lot 554 of Gotthard AlpTransit project involving construction of two running tunnels between Bodio access drift and Faido multi-functional station, deadline 7th December, 2000. Contact Lucerne office, fax +41 917 439737. Visit www.alptransit.ch July 2000.   Award of Faido-Bodio tunnel section to consortium of Zchokke-Locher, Hochtief, CSC and Mayreder. Visit www.alptransit.ch 27/01.   Atlas Copco announced an order for five drill rigs placed by Consorzio TAT (Tunnel AlpTransit), including Zschokke Locher, Alpine Mayreder Bau, Hochtief, CSC, and Impregilo to construct the 16.6 km Bodio and 15.1 km Faido sections of the Gotthard base tunnel. Excavation to start in spring 2002. Atlas Copco will deliver the first part of the order during the first quarter. Visit www.atlascopco.com/rde and www.boomer-rig.com 52/01.   First 380 m from Bodio portal under construction in cut and cover. 1.2 km-long bypass tunnel to main tunnel alignment completed, together with 1.4 km of east tube and 400 m of west tube to provide launch chambers for two 8.83 m-diameter Herrenknecht TBMs which will start in late-2002 on remaining 15 km-long drives to Faido. 27/02.  Difficult ground conditions in Faido-Polmengo are slowing down the Gotthard base tunnel. Progress is reaching only one metre a day instead of the planned 10 metres, or 30 metres a month instead of 300. A few weeks ago, on the site of the Faido multi-functional station, tunnellers encountered a tricky gneissic area consisting of Leventine gneiss and Lukmanier gneiss. The rock yields under the pressure of the 1,400 m mountain cover above, literally transforming the rock into sand. Special support measures have been adopted to install centimetre after centimetre a kind of steel corset at the tunnel crown. The AlpTransit management reckons that a reliable estimate of the cost overruns and delay will not be possible until the summer. To date, progress at Bodio has reached 14% on the east tube and 9% on the west tube. 15/03.