Swiss team reaches end of world's longest tunnel

Sedrun, Switzerland: Swiss engineers drilling the world's longest tunnel broke through the last section of rock on Friday, crowning over a decade of work.

The 57.1-kilometre rail tunnel under the Gotthard massif will enter service in 2017, taking some of the strain of the tens of thousands of tonnes of freight that cross the Alps on heavy goods trucks by road every day.

A 10-metre wide rotary drill ceremonially ground away the last centimetres of rock at an event broadcast live on Swiss television.

"Together we risked a lot. Together we achieved a lot, because we know the mountain is large but we are small," said Swiss Environment and Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger.

The project is costing more than 12 billion Swiss francs (Dh46.29 billion), and has claimed the lives of eight construction workers.

Some 13 million cubic metres of rock have been dug out of the mountain, equivalent to five times the volume of Egypt's Great Pyramid at Giza.

A Swiss official however remarked that the promise of the tunnel would also depend on what happens on either end, in neighbouring Italy and Germany. "For a noticeable amount of freight to be shifted from road to rail, our neighbouring countries Germany and Italy will have to fulfill their contractual obligation to extend access routes," said Peter Fueglistaler, director of the government's Federal Transport Office.

The title of the longest tunnel is currently held by the undersea Seikan rail tunnel linking the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido.

Top 5: Undersea record bested on land

- Gothard Base Tunnel, Switzerland, 57.1 km (35.4 miles): Twin-bore rail tunnel, to open in 2017. Including access passageways, the structure comprises a total of 158.1 km (93.2 miles) of tunnel.

- Seikan rail tunnel, Japan, 53.8 km (33.4 miles): Single-bore undersea tunnel connecting the main Japanese island of Honshu to the northern island of Hokkaido. Opened in 1988.

- Channel Tunnel, France-Britain, 49.9 km (31 miles): Twin-bore undersea rail tunnel linking French northern coast and England's southern coast. Opened in 1994.

- Loetschberg tunnel, Switzerland, 34.6 km (21.5 miles): Twin-bore railway tunnel opened in 2007 under the Loetschberg mountain range in the Alps.

- Guadarrama rail tunnel, Spain, 28.4 km (17.6 miles).