The last breakthrough in the Brenner tunnel falls

Historic milestone under the Alps. Austria and Italy have united thanks to the railway project of Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT). In fact, the diaphragms of both line tunnels were knocked down simultaneously. The excavators with demolition hammers went into action in the main eastern and western tunnels of the construction lot ‘H53 Pfons-Brennero‘ for material removal.

The demolition of the last rock diaphragm occurred this morning. Only a few moments later, amidst the celebrations, the miners and project managers made their first entry into the tunnel section on the other side of the state border, shaking hands with their Italian colleagues.

The connection

With this breakthrough, the Austrian excavation of the ‘H53 Pfons-Brennero’ construction lot has joined the already completed main tunnels of the Italian lot.H61 Mules 2-3‘.

About 1400 meters deep below the Brenner Pass Thus, two new cross-border connections were created between Austria and Italy. To reach the finish line, two different excavation methods were used. On the Italian side, the ‘Virginia’ and ‘Flavia’ mechanical tunnel boring machines (TBMs) mechanically excavated the two main tunnels up to the state border, on the Austrian side the advancement took place in the traditional way, through excavation with explosives.