Work contract for railway infrastructure signed in Lucerne
The contract is for implementation planning and installation of the railway installations for the Gotthard Base Tunnel and involves equipping the two single-track tunnels, each with a length of 57 km, as well as the overground lines to the north and south with a total length of around 11 km up to the point where they connect with the existing railway network.
Renzo Simoni, CEO of AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd, expressed pleasure that the contract has been signed: "All of the major contracts for the Gotthard Base Tunnel have now been signed. The ball is now in our court." Rolf Brunner, Chairman of the Construction Committee of Transtec Gotthard, added: "We shall make effective use of the public money that has been entrusted to us and meet the agreed deadlines."
In the course of the next few months, the Transtec Gotthard Consortium will prepare the implementation project. When this has been approved by the Federal Office of Transport (FOT), work will start on the railway infrastructure installation site at Biasca. Installation of the railway infrastructure through the south portal will start in the second half of 2009, and through the north portal at Erstfeld at the end of 2011. Commercial operation of the Gotthard Base Tunnel with scheduled train services is planned to start at the end of 2017.