BERN - Tunnel workers in Switzerland joined deep beneath the Alps Thursday to complete the drilling of the world's third longest tunnel, the 34.6 kilometre (21.5 mile) long Loetschberg.
The new tunnel is part of a 14.6 billion Swiss franc (9.5 billion euros, 12.2 billion dollars) plan to increase the capacity of transalpine rail services between northern and southern Europe, allowing road freight to be transferred to rail within the next few years.
It is due to open in December 2007.
The last four-metre (12 foot) section of the Loetschberg between the southern canton of Valais and the central canton of Bern was blasted in the presence of about 1,200 dignitaries, including Swiss Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger.
Red-faced tunnel workers had to have a second go when they discovered after the dust cleared that the planned ceremonial blast had failed to blow through the whole section.
Some 1,800 people have worked around the clock in the hot and humid confines of the Loetschberg for nearly six years, blasting their way through about 80 percent of its length while huge tunnel boring machines dug their way through the rest.
The bolstered network through Switzerland, which is meant to ease transport links between Germany and Italy, will include the world's longest tunnel, a new 57 kilometre-long bore further east beneath the St Gotthard pass, by 2014.
The world's longest tunnels at the moment are the 53.9 kilometre Seikan railway tunnel in Japan and the Channel tunnel between Britain and France (50.5 kilometres).
Trains already travel beneath the St. Gotthard and Loetschberg in twin track tunnels completed in the late 19th and early 20th century respectively, some of them already carrying cars and trucks.
The new bigger bores run at a lower altitude and over about two or three times the distance, to speed up and increase the frequency of passenger and freight train services.
The longest road tunnel is the 24.5 kilometre Laerdal in Norway.
04/28/2005 10:54 GMT