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Switzerland's Mega Tunnel Sets Record

Posted by Soulskill on from the what-a-bore dept.

Anonymous Dupaeur writes "Switzerland, co-home of CERN and numerous other world organizations, has come closer to the completion of their recent megaproject: the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which will be the largest railway tunnel made by man. The project is due to be completed in 2017, and will host 200 to 250 trains a day with a significantly larger kinetic energy than the LHC's beams." After the completion of today's work, the tunnel is now 57 kilometers long, surpassing Japan's 53.9-kilometer Seikan Tunnel. There are a few longer tunnels in existence, such as the 137-kilometer Delaware Aqueduct, but they all move water rather than people.

16 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'd love to see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    No drill needed, just a large Rita Hayworth poster and some elbow grease.

  2. Gotthard by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Funny

    Gotthard? Hadron?

    Who the hell is coming up with these names? Are they trying to sell Viagra?

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    1. Re:Gotthard by slick7 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Gotthard? Hadron?

      Who the hell is coming up with these names? Are they trying to sell Viagra?

      Zo, you zeem to have zis re-occurring dream about very long tunnelz? HMMM. And what do you zink iss moving in zis tunnelz?

      --
      The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
  3. Shame about the station by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Too bad they abandoned the planned station, if there ever was a "Khazad-dûm Central", that would probably be it.

  4. Re:Largest made by man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    There are longer railway tunnels, but they were made by dwarves.

  5. Re:I'd love to see by MagicM · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bummer, I expected something exciting.

  6. Re:Holy irrelevant comparison, Batman! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    They'll do that with the dup that's coming next week.

  7. Yeah but by killmenow · · Score: 3, Funny

    The dwarves delved too greedily and too deep.

  8. Re:I'd love to see by cindyann · · Score: 2, Funny

    mmmm, bacon.

  9. Re:Largest made by man by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, some women made a tunnel 62km in length, so it's good to see the men stepping up.

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
  10. Re:Holy irrelevant comparison, Batman! by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 2, Funny

    >> Comparing an entire train's kinetic energy to that of a fundmantal particle's kinetic energy?

    This story brought to you by the mass media.

  11. Re:I'd love to see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Tunnel_boring_machine

    ---

    I expected something exciting.

    zing.

  12. Re:I'd love to see by mangu · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd love to see a story just about the drill itself

    Not me. I bet it'd be pretty boring.

  13. The first tunnel with high enough kinetic energy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...to test elements of Supertrain Theory.

  14. Super collider? by jimmydigital · · Score: 2, Funny

    with a significantly larger kinetic energy than the LHC's beams

    So... are we going to be colliding trains here then? I don't think I'll be getting a ticket for that route...

    --
    Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. -HLM
  15. Re:I'd love to see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    But it has a great twist at the end!