On the 19/05/2022 at 13h45 an excavator broke through between lot H71 Eisack undercrossing (built by Webuild) and Lot Mules 2-3 (built by Webuild and Ghella), on the Italian side of the East line tunnel.
From the Brenner Base Tunnel ‘s southern portal at Fortezza to the State border at Brenner Pass there is now a 24.1 km long tunnel, part of the 64 km that will connect the Italian town with Innsbruck in Austria to create the Brenner Base Tunnel, which will become the longest railway tunnel in the world.
Excavations in the two railway tunnels began about three and a half years ago from the Mules Access tunnel in a southerly direction to the adjacent construction lot under the Eisack. More than 10 km of drive, almost 5 km for the main tunnel, including all cross passages, were carried out using drill & blast. The last 500 m of the tunnel were excavated in a northerly direction, starting from the Eisack undercrossing construction lot. The excavation works involved the area below the SS12 and the A22 motorway.
In addition to the main tunnels where the high-speed / high-capacity trains will run, the Brenner Base Tunnel project foresees a network of 230 km of tunnels, 151 km of which have already been excavated.
This complex underground network, whose deepest point will be 1,700 m below the mountain range peaks, will have passenger trains travel at speeds of up to 250 km an hour and those for cargo at 160 km.
Also, there was a second smaller breakthrough between two sections in the main line tunnels which took place at the Eisack undercrossing construction site. This means that all the main tunnels on the Eisack undercrossing construction site have now been excavated.
Mules – BBT’s largest construction lot
The Mules construction lot is the largest construction site on the BBT project. About 65 km are being excavated here between the village of Mezzaselva and the State border at the Brenner Pass.
For further information in the tunnelbuilder archives on the BBT project please click here, at/16 and it/103. Visit https://www.bbt-se.com/ and https://www.webuildgroup.com. 20/22.
