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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.

5 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Largest made by man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which will be the largest railway tunnel made by man.

    Is there a larger, naturally occurring train tunnel somewhere?

    1. Re:Largest made by man by rossdee · · Score: 5, Informative

      We don't know what aliens have built on some other planet in some other solar system...

  2. Meanwhile in the U.S. by Lucas123 · · Score: 5, Informative

    A third of the nation's highways are in poor or mediocre shape. Massively leaking water and sewage systems are creating health hazards and contaminating rivers and streams. More than 6,000 of our nation's 115,000 bridges that are part of the national highway system are structurally deficient, and we can't even get a new tunnel built to link traffic from New York and New Jersey to Manhattan.

  3. 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.
  4. Re:Good for them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As opposed to war? All of them.