Ceneri Base Tunnel

The Ceneri Base Tunnel is a railway base tunnel under construction in Switzerland's Canton Ticino. It passes under Monte Ceneri between Camorino in the Magadino Flat and Vezia near Lugano, and will bypass the current high-level rail route through the Monte Ceneri Tunnel. It is composed of two single-track tunnels, each 15.4 km long. It is another part of the New Railway Link through the Alps project. The final breakthroughs took place on 21 January 2016 and 26 January 2016 . The tunnels are now being equipped and rail service is expected to start in December 2020.
An exploration tunnel near Sigirino was excavated between 1999 and 2003 to gain geological data on the rock formations at the Ceneri Base Tunnel's level. Based on those data, it was decided to only drill a small part using a tunnel boring machine while the rest was excavated with traditional blasting methods. Both the CBT and Gotthard Base Tunnels are being built under contract from the Swiss Federal Government by Alptransit Gotthard AG. Construction of the two single-track bores started during March 2006. The official start of the CBT's construction phase was celebrated on 2 June 2006 with the laying of a foundation stone.

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