SEDRUN, Switzerland — Engineers smashed through that last section of rock Friday to create world's longest tunnel in the Swiss Alps.
A gigantic drilling machine broke the remaining wall 8,200 feet below the imposing Piz Vatgira peak in the Gotthard massif several minutes ahead of schedule Friday afternoon.
Miners, VIPs and journalists inside the 35.4-mile Gotthard Base Tunnel cheered as Switzerland reclaimed the record from Japan's 33.5-mile Seikan Tunnel as the world's longest — excluding aqueducts.
Swiss officials had declared a day of joy Friday ahead of the awaited breakthrough moment for the tunnel, a project some 60 years in the making.
It is seen as an important milestone in the creation of a high-speed transportation network connecting all corners of Europe.
The new route will allow millions of tons of goods that are currently transported through the Alps on heavy trucks to be shifted onto the rails, particularly the economically important link between the Dutch port of Rotterdam and Italy's Mediterranean port of Genoa.
"It's a day of joy for Switzerland," Peter Fueglistaler, director of Switzerland's Federal Office of Transport, said shortly before the tunnel was completed. "We are not a very emotional people but if we have the longest tunnel in the world, this also for us is very, very emotional."
OPINION :
What's a shame! western people always search to be unique in somehow with inventions, buildings, infrastructure or even ways in treatment.Swes people now will do the longest tunnel and arab what they did !! the biggest plate of "kabsa" and the biggest plate of "tabula".
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