Work contract signed for the main lot of the AlpTransit construction site at Vezia

05.02.2010

Today, Friday, February 5, 2010, AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd. and the CPV Consortium signed the work contract for the construction work on the main lot at Vezia, near Lugano. 

The CPV Consortium has been formed by collaboration between CSC SA of Lugano and Pizzarotti SA of Bellinzona. The contract for the construction lot at Vezia (Lot 854) is worth approximately 63 billion Swiss francs. The work mainly comprises realisation of the south portal of the Ceneri Base Tunnel and construction of 200 metres of cut-and-cover tunnel, as well as drilling, blasting and lining both tunnels along a length of 300 metres.

Driving work will begin at Vezia in March 2010 and finish in 2016. Commercial operation of the Ceneri Base Tunnel with scheduled train services is planned to start at the end of 2019. „The signing of this contract is a further important step in realising the flat route through the Alps", stated Renzo Simoni, Chief Executive Officer of AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd.

Ceneri Base Tunnel

With a length of 15.4 km between the north portal at Vigana, near Camorino, and the south portal at Vezia, after the Gotthard and Lötschberg Base Tunnels the Ceneri Base Tunnel is the third-largest tunnel project in Switzerland. Only with the Ceneri Base Tunnel as the continuation and extension of the Gotthard Base Tunnel will the new Gotthard line become a continuous flat route for freight traffic through Switzerland. In passenger traffic, journey times between the German-speaking part of Switzerland, the Ticino and Italy will be radically shortened.