The cutter head for the front of the Herrenknecht single shield TBM was fitted on 11th November 2015. The TBM which is 13.97 m in diameter, 2000 ton in weight and has a length of 75 m will start work on the
construction site at the south portal of the future 3177 m Belchen renovation tunnel on the Swiss highway A2. The TBM will be officially launched in February 2016. The new tunnel, which should be completed by 2022, will be used to allow for the refurbishment of the two existing tunnels and therefore will prevent problems with traffic flow. This tunnel will then be later used as an escape tunnel.
On June 2014 the Swiss National Road Department awarded the EUR257.74 million construction contract to Marti Tunnelbau AG (Moosseedorf). The geology along the alignment is Gypsum keuper, Opalinus clay, shell limestone and limestone. Click ch/65 for tunnelbuilder archive. Visit http://www.belchentunnel.ch and http://www.martiag.ch/. 52/15.
