Access tunnel Gotthard road tunnel

The project

During the planned renovation work on the 16.9-kilometre Gotthard road tunnel, which is necessary due to age-related requirements, the tunnel is temporarily closed to traffic. In order to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the important north-south link, the Swiss Federal Roads Office FEDRO builds an additional, parallel tube, followed by the renovation of the existing tunnel.
As part of the preparations for the construction of the second tube, two access tunnels are also built. The southern tunnel is excavated using a Herrenknecht single-shield TBM and lined with segments.

The segment factory

The segments for the southern access tunnel are produced by Marti Tübbingwerk AG in Klus-Balsthal. In addition to reliable formwork, handling equipment has a major influence on the quality of the segments. They play a decisive role in stripping and storing the concrete segments, which represents a significant milestone in segment production. The challenge in a segment factory is to plan the logistical processes as safely, efficiently and space-savingly as possible.

Our achievements

In this project, we are particularly proud of the pioneering development of a completely new machine that is used for stripping the segments and combines the functions of three machines - the Swiss army knife of segment production, so to speak. In the first step, the segment is stripped using the DAW stripping unit with vacuum suction plate. After stripping, the segment is transferred to the press-turning unit and turned through 180 degrees. As soon as the turned segment has been deposited, a stack can be formed with the same machine. A stack of three segments is lifted and prepared for transportation to the external storage area.

Another remarkable achievement is that this newly developed machine has been operating in three shifts since the beginning of 2022, which means that it has been used 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. An impressive 16,500 segments were produced in less than a year. After completing production at the end of June 2023, the machine returned to us in Ziefen for the upcoming overhaul.

Scope of delivery