Switzerland centre of Alpine tunnelling activity

摘要

For our Alpine special we have concentrated on Switzerland, where editor Adrian Greeman has just visited a number of sites. Switzerland is busy on an extraordinary amount of tunnelling. A land of high mountains and isolated valleys can be expected to make tunnels, but the Swiss can lay claim to some of the greatest projects achieved. Road links, village and town infrastructure, water and power supplies all need tunnels, both large and small, and the Swiss army famously has hollowed out several large mountains. But the works now in progress or starting up will dwarf all the past efforts. So much is under way that the traditional self-sufficiency of the Swiss construction industry has been stretched to the limit, and firms from across Europe are setting up in joint ventures to help cope with the workloads.