The cracker – the BBT Tunnel Worlds

09 August 2021

Post originally written in: Deutsch

BEHIND THE SCENES

Are you familiar with tunnels? Or to put it another way, have you ever thought about how a tunnel is made? I for one have not. Sure, I've driven through one or the other and I've also heard about the Brenner Base Tunnel - the mega project - but that's about it. That's why I wasn't expecting much when my boys and I made our way to Steinach am Brenner on a rainy afternoon. From the outside, the Tunnel Worlds look cool, but not super spectacular. But just wait until you're inside.

AN EXHIBITION WITH A BANG

"Mommy, mommy, you can blow things up!" My big boy can hardly believe his luck. And I can't believe how anyone can stand the noise all day. "Oh, you get used to it," laughs Mr Schneider, who greets us warmly at reception and shows us the "show tunnel with bang effect". What could be better than triggering a loud blast with the push of a single button - even if it is only simulated. The exhibit literally already starts off with a bang, but it gets even better. My sons will tell you that. If you liked the tunnel blasting like they did, you won't believe your luck when you get to drive a train.

ALL NEW

During the closure necessitated by the Corona pandemic, the exhibition was renovated both visually and in terms of content and reopened in July 2021. On seven stations and an exhibition area of around 800 square metres, you can immerse yourself in the mysterious world surrounding the construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel on two floors. Numerous stations from different areas such as history, geology, surveying, tunnel construction, technology, environment and more invite you to participate, research and learn through play.

A PROJECT OF SUPERLATIVES

The Brenner Base Tunnel runs from Innsbruck to Franzensfeste in South Tyrol. It connects Austria and Italy with each other. The route is a flat track that runs relatively straight with a gradient of 4 ‰ - 7 ‰. In this way, the Brenner Base Tunnel reduces the distance between Innsbruck and Franzensfeste from 75 to 55 kilometres. The journey between the two places will take only 25 minutes! This is a welcome time saving not only for travellers, but also for freight traffic. The elimination of the incline means that longer and heavier freight trains can now pass through the line. And that's not only practical, it's also good for the environment. Because thanks to reduced freight traffic on Tyrol's motorways, air quality benefits.

The Brenner Base Tunnel measures a total of 64 kilometres (including the Innsbruck bypass), making it the longest underground rail link in the world.

FROM BEASTS OF BURDEN TO MODERN MEANS OF TRANSPORT

Goods were already transported over the Brenner Pass in the Bronze Age, albeit at that time laboriously on foot. The flow of goods increased steadily and amounted to 15,000 tons at the beginning of the 19th century. 50 years later it was already 60,000 tons per year. Quite a lot compared to the initial 3,000 tons per year of the Bronze Age, quite a bit compared to the 223.5 million tons that rolled over the Alps in 2019. When you consider that 11.5 million trucks crossed the Alps in 2019 and 22 percent of them - 2.5 million - went through the Brenner Pass, you realize what that means for the environment.

CLEAN AIR FOR EUROPE

One of the European Union's objectives is to ensure the fast, cheap and environmentally friendly transport of goods. In order to do something about the increasing heavy traffic on the roads, the first steps in this direction were already taken in the 1990s with the establishment of the TEN-T (Trans-European Transport Network). In 2013, TEN axes were transformed into transnational multimodal transport links, and Europe's most important seaports are now connected to the railway infrastructure.

In the BBT Tunnel Worlds, they explain very clearly the positive effects of putting a large part of the traffic "on rail". I particularly remember the following example: A Swedish truck breaks down in Sicily, the replacement engine comes from Stockholm. But how does the replacement engine get to the truck? You can choose from four means of transport suitable for engine transport and then see the respective transport duration, the CO2 emissions, the cargo handling and the transport route. By train it takes 44 hours to cover this distance, but only 43.68 kilograms of CO2 emissions. With a transport time of five hours, the journey by plane is considerably faster, but the CO2 emission of 1,997.18 kg is many times higher. An exciting comparison!

The Brenner Base Tunnel project is a mega-project that will bring great relief - on the one hand, less traffic, but fresher air, and on the other hand, we can get to Italy faster. Innsbruck will also see some changes, which will be particularly visible in the Sill Gorge. Since the end of June, interested visitors have been able to find out about the Brenner Base Tunnel project and the entire Munich-Verona railway axis in a permanent exhibition in the southern part of the gallery at Innsbruck's main railway station. Every three months, a new topic relating to the Brenner Base Tunnel and the Brenner axis will be the focus of attention. The first of these will be an exhibition on the BBT construction site "Sillschlucht" in the south of Innsbruck. More information about the "Sillschlucht project area" can be found here (the listed exhibition at Bergisel ran until the end of 2020) A great blog post about the Sillschlicht with beautiful photos and hiking ideas can be found here. Kristina has already written a post about the Brenner Base Tunnel, which you can find here.

If you are looking for more bad weather tips after visiting the BBT Tunnelwelten info center, you will find them here.