Show all / Hide all

How is the Brenner Base Tunnel being built?

The BBT is being excavated through rock using blasting and tunnel boring machines, depending on geological conditions.

Who is working on the BBT?

The project includes numerous fields, both of knowledge and work. First of all, civil engineers and construction workers, such as blasting experts, mechanics and electricians are involved in construction. A project of this size also requires environmental engineers, geologists and geotechnical experts and lawyers, financial experts, physicists, experts in construction materials and construction managers for the administrative area.

Will the construction of the BBT create jobs?

Yes. On the one hand, directly on the construction sites, where at peak times over 500 people are employed. Consequently, trade and service businesses of all sorts in the surrounding areas also profit, since hundreds of workers must be provided with housing and other services.

Why is an exploratory tunnel being built first?

Before the two large tunnel tubes are built, an exploratory tunnel is being excavated. This tunnel has a diameter of 6 m and runs between the two tubes, 12 m below them. The exploratory tunnel is important to obtain further information about the inside of the mountain and therefore plan the construction of the main tubes with a higher degree of precision.
During the construction of the main tubes, the spoil will be removed through the exploratory  tunnel. Construction can therefore continue undisturbed.
The exploratory tunnel also serves as a drainage tunnel for underground waters that collect in the entire tunnel system. These waters will be drained off through the exploratory tunnel.

Who is financing the Brenner Base Tunnel?

The European Union is co-financing the Brenner Base Tunnel with the highest possible grant level, 27%. Austria and Italy will each cover half of the remaining costs.

How much spoil from the mountain will be deposited?

The volume of spoil that will be deposited is 17 million m3. You can imagine that as a cube with sides 257 m long.

Show all / Hide all

What is a base tunnel?

We speak of a base tunnel when a tunnel runs through a mountain without noticeable sloping (so it may also be called a low-gradient railway). There are no steep access ramps running from the valleys to the tunnel portals. Base tunnels are built almost only through high mountain ranges.

What are access routes?

The stretches that lead to the tunnel are known as access routes. For the BBT, these are, to the north, the stretch from Munich over the new Lower Inn Valley line, to the south the stretch between Fortezza and Verona with five partial stretches to be expanded, including the line from Fortezza to Ponte Gardena or the Bolzano or Trento bypasses.
To use the capacity of the BBT to its utmost, it is important that these stretches become operational at the same time.

Show all / Hide all

May I visit the construction sites for the BBT?

Yes. You may visit several BBT construction sites in Austria and Italy. Also, there are often “Open Tunnel Days”.

To construction site visits

Is there a way to get more information on the project area from home?

The entire planning for the BBT is built on geo-referenced data. A geographical information system (GIS) was created, which is accessible from here.

Show all / Hide all

Will travel time be lessened with the Brenner Base Tunnel?

Yes. The travel time from Innsbruck to Bolzano will be cut in half, from the two hours it takes now to 1 hour. The ICE from Munich to Verona will take only 3 hours instead of the 5.5 hours now required.

In case of an accident, how do I get out of the long tunnel?

Both main tunnels are linked every 333 m by connecting side tunnels.  These are safe areas in which passengers can find refuge themselves and reach the other tunnel. From there, a rescue train can bring them to one of the three multipurpose areas (Innsbruck, St. Jodok or Campo di Trens). An access tunnel leads from these underground stations to the open air.

Show all / Hide all

How do we know that the Brenner Base Tunnel can even be built, from a geological point of view?

The geological information we have is based on preliminary prospection studies that have been going on for decades.
So far 200 prospection borings have been carried out, in which over 27.000 m of stone were removed from the mountain, to evaluate the rock mass along the planned tunnel route.

Through what kind of stone will the Brenner Base Tunnel run?

To simplify, the following rock structures can be found, running from north to south:
Phyllite is a metamorphic schist-like rock consisting mostly of quartz and mica (in the Innsbruck-Ahrental area).
Schist is a medium- to coarse-grained rock with a marked planar and linear texture (north and south of the Brenner).
Gneiss is a metamorphic rock with a high degree of metamorphism. It consists mostly of the minerals feldspar, quartz and light and dark mica (in the Brenner area).
Granites are massive, relatively coarse-grained, magmatic plutonic rocks. They are rich in quartz and feldspar but also include darker minerals such as mica (in the area of Mules).

Show all / Hide all

Where does the BBT begin and where does it go?

In Austria there will be two junctions to the BBT: a link to the existing Innsbruck railway bypass and to the central station in Innsbruck. In Italy, the tunnel ends at Fortezza station.

How long is the Brenner Base Tunnel?

It stretches for 64 km between Fortezza and the tunnel entrance in Tulfes, near the Innsbruck bypass that was built in 1994. This makes the BBT the longest railway tunnel in the world!
The length of the tunnel from Fortezza to Innsbruck is 55 km.

What does the Brenner Base Tunnel look like?

The BBT is a complex tunnel system. Besides the two main tubes and the exploratory tunnel, there are connecting tunnels, side tunnels and multipurpose areas plus four lateral access tunnels. A single track runs through each of the two main tubes; the distance between these tubes ranges from 40 to 70 m. Railway traffic is one-way.

Why do we need the Brenner Base Tunnel?

The BBT is the heart of a 2,200-km long railway axis running between Berlin and Palermo and considered a priority project (the TEN-1 axis) by the European Union. Today, three quarters of this axis are under construction or already operational between Berlin and Naples, as high-capacity or high-speed stretches. The only way to cross both the flatlands and the Alps with a high-speed line is to use a base tunnel.