50 Years of the Swiss Tunnelling Society – Anniversary at the Swiss Tunnel Congress 2023

The 21st Swiss Tunnel Congress and the 50th anniversary celebration of the Swiss Tunnelling Society took place in Lucerne‘s KKL Congress Centre
Credit/Quelle: Klostermeier

The 21st Swiss Tunnel Congress and the 50th anniversary celebration of the Swiss Tunnelling Society took place in Lucerne‘s KKL Congress Centre

Credit/Quelle: Klostermeier

Dynamic “Young Members”

At the STS Young Members Podium, the best presentations were awarded; in addition to the expert jury, the audience was also allowed to participate in the selection
Credit/Quelle: STS/Selina Meier

This dynamism comes in no small measure from the STS Young Members, who have long since played a significant role in the STS. The first day of events at this year‘s Swiss Tunnel Congress in Lucerne once again belonged to the young tunnelling experts, who organized the Young Members Podium as a competition as part of the traditional colloquium on June 12, 2023. Six papers were previously selected for presentation on the stage of the KKL Congress Center in Lucerne. From these high-quality project presentations, a jury of experts and the audience present were then allowed to determine the best. The winners were Annika Zimmermann for her presentation “New cut-and-cover construction of the Hagnau Tunnel –
During operation of the national motorway along the SBB railway embankment” and Nicolas Jungo with the topic “Urban tunnelling in the heart of Bern – The unusual challenges presented by the new access tunnel to extend the the RBS railway station”.

Congress Focus: Swiss Alpine Tunnels

The second day of the event belonged to the Swiss Tunnel Congress, which, on the occasion of the society‘s anniversary, focused entirely on the topic of Swiss Alpine tunnels.

“The Swiss Alpine tunnels have not only shaped the 50-year history of the STS, they have arguably also contributed to making Switzerland the country we know today. A country characterized by modern transport routes, a high level of development and a high degree of mobility,” says Davide Fabbri, New President of the Swiss Tunnelling Society, who took over the post this year from Stefan Maurhofer. “The construction of tunnels for transport infrastructure and other underground structures, for example related to hydropower plants, have driven spatial development and technical progress in our field of activity worldwide.”

Dr. Ulrich Seewer from the Swiss Federal Office for Spatial Development ARE gave the opening lecture of the STC 2023
Credit/Quelle: Klostermeier

The opening lecture was given by Dr. Ulrich Seewer of the Federal Office for Spatial Development ARE. Under the title „Tunnels create connections“, he explained the significant spatial impact that major infrastructure projects, for example on the Gotthard axis, have for Switzerland, and how such new accessibilities provide new impetus for spatial development.

Further presentations dealt with the Gotthard Road Tunnel – the rehabilitation of the first tube and the construction of a new second tube. This was followed by a experience report on the 16-year operating phase of the Lötschberg Base Tunnel to date. Here, the focus was on optimization measures designed to improve the cost-effectiveness of maintenance while maintaining availability and safety at a high level.

For SBB, Daniel Salzmann reported on rail expansion in the Zurich region (see the following article from the STC lecture program in this issue). In addition, among many other project reports, the Rhine Tunnel Basel was presented as a future key project for the region (earliest possible start of construction: 2029). Another interesting presentation dealt with the first BIM-based tendering, execution and invoicing of a public infrastructure project, in this case a tunnel cross connection as an escape route.

Swiss Tunnel Database

Following a series of presentations, the STC speakers were available to the expert audience for a question and answer session
Credit/Quelle: Klostermeier

At the end of the congress, the Swiss Tunnelling Society had one more surprise up its sleeve: In more than 1.5 years of development work, the existing tunnelling landscape in Switzerland had been mapped together with partners; since June, the interactive Swiss Tunnel Database has been online on the website www.swisstunnel.ch. With the help of this database, a visual search via a map is possible. But also an advanced targeted search for specific tunnels is available: name, age, owner, length-related searches, narrowing down to new construction or rehabilitation projects ...

The tunnel database is fun to use and provides available key data on more than 1300 underground construction objects. In addition, the existing STS publications are also made available online for the individual structures, and the user can participate in a continuous completion of the database: with the reporting of any errors, with newly available data, images, reports, etc., so that the work on the database is never finished in the best case and it can be used as an up-to-date reliable source of information.

Insight Into the Underground

More than 600 visitors attended the 2023 Congress; the Anniversary Celebration and Young Members Forum attracted 450 participants
Credit/Quelle: STS/Selina Meier

In its anniversary year, the STS granted the general public rare access to existing underground structures and those under construction The „ Insight into the Underground“ tour campaign, which began back in May, was spread over more than 25 venues throughout Switzerland and will be concluded at the end of September after a period of just under 5 months.

According to Stefan Maurhofer, acceptance among the population for underground infrastructure solutions has grown over time. This trend will continue in the coming years, he says, as the need for connectivity and mobility has been joined by an equally important need for a landscape that is as undisturbed as possible. Simply put, tunnelling enjoys a high level of popularity among the Swiss population.

Marvin Klostermeier