Gotthard Base Tunnel: Work on installing the railway infrastructure can begin

To avoid years of delay being caused by a legal battle over award of the contract for installation of the railway infrastructure in the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the central project for the Swiss and European railway network, the tunnel's owner, AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd, and the Swiss Railway Infrastructure Consortium (Implenia Bau AG, Sersa Group Management AG, Rhomberg Bahntechnik AG, Siemens Schweiz AG, Murer-Strabag AG and Walo Bertschinger AG) have reached an out-of-court agreement. The Swiss Railway Infrastructure Consortium has withdrawn its appeal against the award of the 1.69 billion Swiss francs project. This allows AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd to proceed with finalizing and signing the work contract without further delay. All process risks for AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd are thus eliminated. The company will therefore pay the Swiss Railway Infrastructure Consortium a one-time amount of 1 million Swiss francs for the costs it incurred in submitting its tender.

Renzo Simoni, CEO of AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd, is pleased with the the agreement: "In view of the threatening delay of several years, and the resulting costs of approximately CHF 10 million per month, this is the least costly solution with the greatest benefit for our project. Work on our construction project of the century can now go ahead at full speed." Representing the Swiss Railway Infrastructure Consortium, Luzi R. Gruber emphasises that with this solution the six members of his consortium acted in the best interests of Switzerland: "For the benefit of Switzerland we have agreed to a compromise that quickly brings clarity to all involved and allows work to begin." The Swiss Railway Infrastructure Consortium has also informed AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd that it has entered into an agreement with the Transtec Gotthard Consortium.

At its meeting held on May 4, 2007, the board of directors of AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd awarded the contract for the railway infrastructure of the Gotthard Base Tunnel to the Transtec Gotthard Consortium. The Transtec Gotthard Consortium comprises the following companies: Atel Installationstechnik AG, Alcatel-Lucent Schweiz AG, TRSS Thales Rail Signalling Solutions AG, Alpine-Bau GmbH, and Balfour Beatty Rail GmbH. The contract for this last major construction lot on the Gotthard is worth approximately 1.69 billion Swiss francs. The contract is for installation of the railway infrastructure systems for the Gotthard Base Tunnel and involves equipping the two single-track tunnels, each with a length of 57 km, as well as the overground lines to the north and south with a total length of around 11 km up to the point where they connect with the existing railway network.

It is now planned for the contract to be signed in spring 2008. The consortium that has received the award will then prepare the execution project. When this has been approved by the Federal Office of Transport (FOT), work will start on the railway infrastructure installation site at Biasca. Installation of the railway infrastructure through the south portal will start in mid-2009. Commercial operation of the Gotthard Base Tunnel with scheduled train services is planned to start in 2017.


Further information:
Alptransit
Ambros Zgraggen (Head of communications)
Tel: +41 (0)41 226 06 42
Email: ambros.zgraggen@alptransit.ch
Web: www.alptransit.ch