News from the H41 Sill Gorge-Pfons construction site: the TBM Ida is three-quarters of the way through and has passed the 'Werner' fault zone

Two important pieces of news from the northernmost construction site currently operating in the Brenner Base Tunnel: the TBM Ida continues its journey, successfully tackling and overcoming new and complex geological challenges.

The children at Navis Primary School knew they were looking at an extraordinary machine capable of great feats when they chose a name for one of the tunnel boring machines involved in the construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel in the spring of 2023.

 

What they could not have imagined, despite their liveliness and contagious enthusiasm, was how quickly Ida would embark on her journey. And yet, that is exactly what happened.

 

After the official ceremony on June 27th 2023, Ida began its journey by successfully overcoming three complex fault zones: 'Viggartal', 'Walzn' and, most recently, 'Werner'.

 

Today, the tunnel boring machine is at kilometre 14.2 of the main tunnel west, heading south, with an important milestone behind it: the completion of 6 kilometres of excavation.

 

"Considering that Ida's total distance is 8.4 kilometres, we can say that she has already covered three quarters of her journey. The complexity of the geological context in which she is moving makes the result even more significant", explains Romed Insam, project manager for Lot H41 Sill Gorge -Pfons.

 

The figures speak for themselves: Ida excavated 510,000 cubic metres of rock and assembled no less than 21,500 tubbing rings. The latter are produced directly in the factory on the site in Ahrental, saving around 27,000 lorry journeys on the roads.

 

The name 'Ida' symbolises dynamism and industriousness, qualities that perfectly reflect her work. The choice of the young Navis students turned out to be more than right.

 

But Ida is not just a symbol of technological progress: her work is also about environmental sustainability, protecting the future of the next generation. One day, those same children will travel quickly between northern and southern Europe, knowing that they have left their mark on this great enterprise.