Switzerland's Mega Tunnel Sets Record

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.

Tunnels vs. Highways?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Somebody here's already looked into this:

If instead of a highway from point A to point B, for travelers going all the way from A to B, what has more capacity: 4 +- lanes of asphalt driven by drivers, or a loading system at A and an unloading system at B? One would imagine multiple on and off ramps, and computer-controlled mux/demux of the carrying platforms.

I know, most people would rather pay $20 in gas + $20 in wear than a $20 toll, but, just supposin'.

Probably multiple stretches of tunnels would really be necessary with a 'pee break' station every 20 minutes or so. Sort of like the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel, but you get to play cards with your kids instead of driving.

Re:Good for them

[shikaisi]

Well, if it is, then the US is pursuing tactics that will lose the infrastructure battle. The WTC cost about $900 million to build. Let's assume that rebuilding at today's prices cost 10 times as much, say $9 billion. Then, in this infrastructure battle, even if terrorists had destroyed 50 WTC-sized targets, it would still make more sense for the the US to just suck it up and rebuild, than to spend the amount of money that they have on Iraq and Afghanistan. That's how incredibly wasteful war is.