On Wednesday, March 31, 2021, tunnellers on the Brenner Base Tunnel achieved a new record whilst excavating the main 8.1m i.d. tubes in the South Tyrol – 860m of tunnel bored and lined in one month.
On the Italian construction lot “Mauls 2-3” of the mega-project, three Herrenknecht TBMs are boring from south to north, excavating the two main running tunnels as well as an exploratory and later service tunnel 12m below. The March 2021 record was set by the contracting joint venture BTC S.c.a.r.l. (Astaldi S.p.A., Ghella S.p.A., P.A.C. S.p.A. and Cogeis S.p.A.) whilst driving one of the three machines – the Double Shield 10.65m diameter TBM named “Virginia”.
In March 2021, the Brenner Base Tunnel project owner, Austrian-Italian BBT SE, also announced an average daily advance rate of 27.7m for “Virginia” with a best daily performance of 36.75m.
Dr. Matthias Flora, Sales and Project Manager at Herrenknecht, congratulated the team on the jobsite: “Our customer BTC’s crews are absolute top professionals in their field. Congratulations and our utmost respect for this achievement!”
By early April 2021, the two machines in the Brenner main tunnels had already covered over 50% of the total distance toward their lot boundary.
At a total length of 64km the Brenner Base Tunnel, being constructed for the Client, Austrian-Italian BBT SE, will be the longest underground rail link in the world. It crosses beneath the Alps between Innsbruck in Austria and Franzensfeste (Fortezza) in South Tyrol/Italy.
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