Gotthard Tunnel Ventilation System Design

Keynote Lecture

Since December 2016, the world’s longest railway tunnel, the Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT), built by the AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd, is fully operational. The GBT, having a length of 57 km, a rock oberburden of up to 2300 m, three intermediate construction accesses, rock temperatures of up to 44°C and four emergency stations with smoke extraction, required a complex and robust ventilation system enabling a succesful operation of the tunnel under challenging conditions. Along with the different concepts employed for the normal and emergency ventilation, the presentation deals with the major design relevant requirements, the technical implementation and the historical development of the ventilation system of GBT.