Swiss Tunnel Congress 2024 in Lucerne
After celebrating its 50th anniversary last year, the Swiss Tunnelling Society (STS) returned to its traditional format with the Swiss Tunnel Congress 2024: two days of colloquium and congress, as always in the KKL Lucerne, but this time in the Lucerne Hall, followed by the excursions on the third day of the event. In total, around 960 visitors from 10 European countries attended the Swiss Tunnel Congress from 5 to 7 June.
Alexander Heim gave a presentation on the major infrastructure project TELT – Lyon–Turin Tunnel – Novel solutions for loose rock tunnelling in construction lot CO08 at the Mont-Cenis Base Tunnel
Credit/Quelle: STS
Colloquium
This year‘s colloquium was held under the title “Materials Management and Sustainability in Tunnelling”. Due to growing demands for efficiency and sustainability, particularly in the field of underground construction projects, the topic of materials management is becoming increasingly important, as the requirements of climate protection demand prudent use of resources and appropriate technical solutions.
Dipl.-Ing. TU Götz Schackenberg explained a materials management concept on the example of the Basel Rhine Tunnel. The twin-tube TBM tunnel is intended to relieve the east tangent in Basel, which is plagued by daily traffic jams. The materials management requires the planning and operation of a multi-modal logistics concept in the Rhine harbour at Birsfelden. It is based on the direct utilisation of materials suitable for construction or processing abroad, in the Swiss Plateau and in the Basel area. The material is transported abroad by ship, to the Swiss Plateau by rail and to the Basel region by lorry.
The Swiss Tunnel Congress and the preceding Swiss Tunnel Colloquium took place on 5 and 6 June 2024 at the KKL in Lucerne
Credit/Quelle: STS
Around 960 visitors from 10 European countries attended the Swiss Tunnel Congress 2024 in Lucerne
Credit/Quelle: STS
Dipl. Natw. ETHZ Alexander Wyss analysed the circular economy in tunnel construction in comparison to a global economic average and conducted a fact check using the example of two current major tunnel construction projects in the Alps. The two major projects in question are the construction of the second tube of the Gotthard Road Tunnel in the central Alps of Switzerland and the Euralpin Lyon–Turin Tunnel (TELT). Conclusion: With regard to the consumption of the main raw materials sand and gravel, tunnelling already operates a genuine circular economy in many cases and compares very well with the global figures for the recycling of resources.
The starting point for his analysis is an assessment from the Global Circularity Gap Report by the Circle Economy Foundation (2023): “The global economy is now only 7.2 % circular. The global situation is deteriorating from year to year, driven by the increasing extraction and use of materials.” In contrast, 23 % of the excavated material from the Gotthard Road Tunnel is used directly for aggregate for concrete; the figure for the Lyon-Turin tunnel is 31 %. Another project, the Tunnel de Champel in Geneva, achieved a record value with a reutilisation rate of around 83% of the excavated material. The Gotthard Base Tunnel can also serve as a positive example, with a reutilisation rate for excavated material of just under 68 % overall, or around 50 % within the project.
Other presentations in the colloquium‘s extensive lecture programme dealt with interesting topics such as carbonated demolition concrete in tunnel construction as a technical solution for CO2 removal from demolition concrete (which represents the largest waste stream in the world in terms of volume), or sustainability through the use of concrete with recycled materials in infrastructure projects
Congress
Davide Fabbri (left), President of the Swiss Tunneling Society, with Marco Rosso (right), Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cargo sous terrain AG, who gave the opening speech on future underground, climate-friendly freight logistics
Credit/Quelle: STS
The introductory speech to the Swiss Tunnel Congress 2024 was given by Marco Rosso, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cargo sous terrain AG. He gave the audience an insight into the role that the Cargo sous terrain project is intended to play in the Swiss freight transport of the future - an overall logistics system whose backbone will be formed by tunnel connections between the country‘s centres. While the first section is to run between the Gäu district in the canton of Solothurn and Zurich Airport, the vision for the future envisages a total of 500 kilometres of tunnels running through Switzerland to create new routes for transporting goods independently of rail and road and thus take account of above-average growth in the population and economy without overloading the infrastructure resources on the surface.
This year‘s congress programme included interesting and complex presentations on a total of nine national and European tunnel projects. The programme included presentations on the current status of the Swiss underground construction projects 3rd Rosenberg Tunnel, Gubrist Tunnel, Ferney cut-and-cover tunnel, Pyramides d‘Euseigne Tunnel and the new Neuchâtel-La Chaux-de-Fonds line. The STC presentation “SBB dual-track tunnel Ligerz – Eliminating a traffic bottleneck with complex boundary conditions” can be read in full in tunnel 3/24.
A total of 16 expert lectures were held during the two days of the colloquium and congress programme
Credit/Quelle: STS
The presentations on the international tunnelling projects TELT Lyon-Turin Base Tunnel, Galleria Terzo Valico on the new Milan-Genoa high-speed line and, last but not least, the Koralm Tunnel offered an exchange of technical experience beyond Switzerland‘s borders.
In their closing congress presentation, Dr. Klaus Schneider and Dr. Helmut Steiner from ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG reported on the final phase of the 130 km long Koralm Railway with its 33 km long tunnel and the challenges involved in completing and commissioning one of the largest railway infrastructure projects in Europe. According to the authors in their conclusion, projects of this magnitude require stable long-term strategies and clear organisational structures with short decision-making processes. Consistent project, risk and cost management are key components of successful project realisation.
Swiss Tunnel Day 2025
The FGU has announced an organisational change for 2025: Next year, the Swiss Tunnel Day (STDay) will take place for the first time on 12 June at the Congress Centre in Biel instead of the STC – a more compact one-day event, without a colloquium and concluding excursions, but with the usual high-quality congress programme on technical innovations and challenging construction projects in planning and execution. In future, STC and STDay will be organised alternately every two years.
