The $11B Tunnel That Could Save One of Europe’s Busiest Mountain Corridors | WSJ Breaking Ground
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- Опубліковано 27 тра 2024
- Nestled under the Alps and the Italian-Austrian border, the Brenner Base Tunnel is poised to be the longest underground railway connection in the world. The $11 billion megaproject, which has been floated around for centuries, is both a wild engineering feat and a critical project in the EU’s effort to connect itself, known as the Trans-European Transport Network.
This corridor will link ports in Scandinavia to ports in the Mediterranean, as well as connect Germany’s economy with Italy’s.
WSJ explores the opportunities this tunnel will open between the regions and how the EU’s effort to connect itself across borders aims to strengthen its global posture.
0:00 The Brenner Base Tunnel
0:42 How the tunnel will be beneficial
3:07 Cutting freight route times
3:55 Construction sites
4:59 Cost of the megaproject
Breaking Ground digs into megaprojects around the world, uncovering what these developments might mean for the surrounding region and the ultimate costs.
#Megaprojects #Economy #WSJ
we need more rail infrastructure all over Europe.
Yeah sure but its not like you can do it everywhere first its expensive and has to be useful and second it can be harmful environmentally if we built unnecessary railway
Austria really is correct on this one. It's not strictly the climate change thing. But all the congestion on one narrow highway.
If they can transport this stuff by railway, it would take a lot of pressure off the roads.
@@awellculturedmanofanime1246no such thing as unnecessary railway. We have roads everywhere. Roads that are better replaced with rail
@@awellculturedmanofanime1246okay but roads and cars are not harmful environmentally? Gotcha.
Concrete and steel = tonnes of co2.
You didn't mention the most important reason for delay: the unwillingness of Bavaria to construct the connection railroad from the Austrian/Bavarian border to Munich. While most of this work has already been done in Austria and Italy, on the German side they haven't even decided the exact route.
German bureaucracy is a monster...
its the same here in switzerland. we made a simmilar agreement with germany and italy. there were no probpems with italy but many with germany. the germans make agreements and think the infrastructure will build without doing something. they need to understand that they cant make agreements and then dont honor them. its a shame how terrible germany became in the last 10-15 years.
@@karlheinz4059 It's the bureaucracy, totally and utterly overloaded/useless/lazy. The reason, why the economy is tanking!
@@cyberslim7955No its not. Its German politicians that Hold it up
@@szrew7992 No, has nothing to do with politics, it's the bureaucracy. Germany is officially a third world country because of it's bureaucracy, and only because of it's bureaucracy. I lived abroad over 25 years, now I am back in Germany. OMG! OMG! OMG!
Everything is ok, but the bureaucracy is worse than in a third world country! Every country is digitalising, but not Germany. The German bureaucracy is insanely overloaded with laws made by bureaucrats and is completely unwilling to make decisions, because they could legally backfire. Nobody needs to take responsibility for anything anyway, because nobody ever gets fired.
If you don't live in Germany and have not lived in other countries before, you have no clue, it is unbelievable. Let me tell you, the Germans live in this bureaucratic stinking mess for so long, they even don't understand how bad it is compare to other countries.
So to the outside, it looks like there is a lack of political will, but actually it's the bureaucracy, which is completely unable to push anything through. And this now also shows on the overall economy. So many businesses don't invest in Germany anymore, because of bureaucratic insanity. Search on YT, there are thousands of vids about this.
There are actually 2 other tunnels under construction in Austria: the Semmeringbasistunnel und the Koralmtunnel. The route is from Vienna to Graz and then to Klagenfurt and from there to Italy. This two other tunnels are combined about the same length as the BBT.
Yeah both Italy and Austria are doing amazing. Italians for example are building an even bigger tunnel to France as well as Valico tunnel which is similar in length to Koralp and Semmering base tunnels.
And this an example of a project that only stable democracies can really do. Carefully integrated in the environment, based on actual financials, and without grandiose, and ultimately counter-productive, deadlines. Steady, dependable, almost boring work of a subtle sophistication.
"Almost" boring? I would say the vast majority of the work is to bore!
Ever heard of China
In China this tunnel would have been completed in 1/5 the time for ⅓ the cost.
@@TheDubaiNavigator crashed in two year, would have displaced 500K people, wrecked the rivers, caused toxic dumps all over and would have been built not to support the economy but some ego by placing it in the wrong location.
Been to China, you seem to think Augustus the Great. Think more Attila the Hun.
actually infrastructure is the strong suit of autocracies. innovation & freedom are products of democracy, which in large parts hinder big projects like these. refer to the lackluster infrastructure of US. even with bipartisan support for build back better, we're yet to see many promised projects to break grounds due to legal hurdles afforded by democracy
Sadly due to the incompetence of the germans (like always) the project won't be able to run full capacity even after construction on the austrian and italian side is finished. Same happened with the Gotthard-tunnel in Switzerland. Germany really became an incredible unreliable partner in recent years.
Same with our Betuwe-lijn. It’s a freight rail from Rotterdam to germany. Dutch part was finished 16 years ago. Building the german part should have started in 2003, but was postponed until 2016. And now it’s delayed to 2026.
Always has been.
If it is good for the environment, saves costs and furthers trade link, why are the Germans delaying this?
@@prithvirajsrinivasan1077 Germany has troubles to finance infrastructure projects.
@@erik5374 Trouble as in lack of budget?
I like to see the European Union working in that way.
You should've talked about the delay on the German portion of the project. It doesn't just stop in Austria. And because Germany had such delays, the tunnel will not be able to reach even close it's capacity for 10 years after it's completion
why? project overruns arent news. all about risk management.
Look at the gotthardbase tunnel, Germany is decades behind doing it's part which was legally written down.
Brennerbasetunnel will have the same issue.
Suprisingly the italians are more reliable then the germans with planning infrastructure...no offense my italian friends.
@@Slithermotion Honestly there should be fines for signatories that are missing deadlines. Just like with construction companies
Unlucky that Germans can't plan and constuct anything properly. Look at the airport in Berlin or the Stuttgart project :D:D
Yes, the real issue is not the tunnel - that will get build, slowly, but steadily. The issue are the connecting routes, which have NIMBY issues on both sides. But unfortunately much worse on the Bavarian/German side, so won't get that done in time.
Difficult to understand why that is; there's some German mini docus on it on youtube. People just come across as very petty, with nonsense concerns, and politicians rather than support the project undermine it via empty promises to those people, as if somehow the Brenner problems could be fixed in a different way.
In northwest Italy/southeast France, we have another major rail project, the Lyon Turin line which will include the Mont d'Ambin Base Tunnel. That tunnel will be even longer than the Brenner Base Tunnel. This project has been slowly lurching forward and the NIMBY group, NoTAV (Treno ad Alta Velocita or High Speed Train), has been protesting and doing their best to block it. However progress is staring to be made. The Europeans don't mess around when it comes to rail projects.
Ha. Very good video. I originally thought I clicked on a B1M video until I left realize halfway that it wasn't Fred talking.
When you publish a video about Europe, I believe it is reasonable to assume that the majority of the audience will be from Europe. Having said that, I think it would be polite to use the metric system 😉
The intellectual horizon of many Americans only extends from Los Angeles to New York. They don't realize that they are almost alone in the world with their completely destructive system (feet, miles, inces, lbs, etc.).
@@ThomasK3004: Inbred arrogance; like a European country with that same system and who wouldn't bother to change to right-side driving like many other countries did
NATO dictates what Europe can or cant do. remember you are Vassals to Washington.
The funny thing is, the Metric system is official in US. "Congress has established a national policy to make the metric system the preferred system of measurement for trade and commerce in the United States." See: www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metrication-law
@@covfefe1787 NATO uses metric.
You better build a tunnel under Germany, that's the real bottleneck 😂
Yeah Germany is also making the swiss Gotthard base tunnel a bit of a thud. The passenger rail connections are laughable too.
Really proud of my country 🇮🇹 to make some intercontinental infrastructures that will boost our economy to the moon
Economia italiana alle stelle????
Non credo viviamo nello stesso paese
Intercontinental means between continents
@@gre894 sorry
So between continental which word is used?
@@MainulWasTaken Intracontinental or I guess in this case, intereuropean/intra-EU would be an applicable term.
Keep these infrastructure videos coming!
Bit of nostalgia to see the UK in the EU road/rail infrastructure map 1:02 😢
That's a great example of two things:
a) why we, Europeans need EU
b) why not everything can be done by private companies
Costruite con i soldi dei contribuenti e date in concessione a privati con sede in paradisi fiscali nella stessa unione. Eh si; proprio due grandi esempi. Io la EU non la voglio.
Long term planning. Well done to all involved!
Except Germany - they get their well done when they finally finish their part of the project. Because the corridors rely on Germany also expanding their parts of the corridor.
You seem to have misunderstood how the Austrian federal system works.
The federal government did not impose these traffic limitations, the Tyrolean state government did.
And the federal gov couldn‘t force the state gov to lift them even if they wanted to.
One of the main function of federal systems is for the states to blame everything controversial to the federal government eventhough they have nothing to do with it.
@@cmmartti that’s a bad analogy, your body is under completely centralized control, if it was a country it’d be a dictatorship. In this case it’s more like your kid punched someone and you need to take some responsibility
They've signed a treaty making european law supersede austrian law. It is illegal. Full stop.
@@cmmartti Austrian here. "If it so chooses" translates into "complex & lenghty negotiations needed". It wasn't mentioned in the clip, but the population along the transport corridor - which spans from Kitzbühel via Innsbruck to Matrei am Brenner (several 100k people) isn't happy with the insane amount of traffic going on in their backyard (often times, quite literally so). Any regional politician who might choose to ignore those complaints wouldn't survive politically.
And it's good that there are trafic restrictions
there are another 2 or 3 of these base tunnels built/being built and you should do documentries on all of them because they are all interesting and watch every video that comes out for them.
The problem is the Munich to Innsbruck railway. Without high speed in there, people will still take the plane to go from Germany to Italy. I suppose it's fine for freight.
Yeah, it takes me 3 hours from Italy to Munich by car, while it takes 6 hours by train, costs more, and you have to take 2 changes (hoping for no delays). I see no reasons to use the train.
We need a HS line between Verona and Munich.
@@Ale-bj7ndwohin in Italien von München aus dauert es denn 3 Stunden mit dem Auto, aber 6 mit dem Zug. Fahre die Strecke oft und verstehe deine Aussage nicht ganz
@@stascht7116 Ich spreche nicht sehr gut Deutsch. Kannst di in English repeat it?
@@stascht7116 Wait, I think I have understood. Check Ortisei (Grödental)
The biggest problem are the Germans. They will not have proper railway lines to the BBT when it is finished. They are slow as @@@@ and don't invest in their infrastructure. For Austria this is only one of three mega tunnels which are currently under construction and we can do this without any issues. Germany doesn't even know where to build the rails to the BBT. This will take decades.
Wrong. The infrastructure in Germany is already in place. It already provides the necessary capacities to feed the BBT.
@@flierfy It's too slow. Munich to Innsbruck takes too much time. There should be High-speed railways. So people could take the train from germany to italy instead of planes.
And for the Gotthard base tunnel they know the route but it will open at earliest in the 40s. Even Italy is much further with building out the infrastructure from Switzerland to Genova.
@@flierfy Italy also has railways to the BBT, yet they’re still building the high speed rail line to it on an arguably tougher terrain with higher population density
@@nomad6-1 The BBT gets built first and foremost to simplify operation and may even provide additional capacities. Speeding up passenger traffic is a completely different kettle and a by-product of this project. Shortening travel times north of Innsbruck, though, is rather low on the priority list, and quite rightly so.
Germany is the DACH-country which has sped up rail travel the most and will continue to do so, just not necessarily there where the Austrians wants it.
It is genuinely gobsmacking to see this modern masterpiece measured in ”miles”
I new nothing about this. Now I do. This is very interesting and informative. Well done !
TEAM 🇪🇺 EUROPE
🇪🇺
Wow so much love!Amazing!
Only Germany is failing to build their infrastructure to get proper train connectivity incl. truck infrastructure to the BBT
Thank you for using so much actual footage of the site
I am from Austria and this is actually the best report I ever saw about this topic, and its yet far away
In the area where I live, there are two main rail routes through from Italy into Switzerland. The busier one goes on a more eastern route, through the border at Chiasso and thence to the Gotthard base tunnel. My local one is a single track, built in the 1880's, which follows the shore of Lake Maggiore and enters Switzerland there. It was modernised around 6 years ago, but it's still very old infrastructure and the plan is to run millions of tons of freight along it. New rail infrastructure is definitely needed, before some incident dumps toxic waste into the water and river systems which supply the whole of the densely populated north of Italy.
The Simplon/Sempione railway from Milan to Brig is double track but I agree that the infrastructure needs to be renovated.
truly a heroic effort by all, and well-worth the effort. Especially IF it expands into Eastern Europe more! Whoever came up with this had...bigga ballza!
Good work pals
There is a small mistake at 1:39. The narrator says "... this main highway: the Brenner Pass", but the (black and white) image on display is of the Europa bridge, which is 30 km north of the Brenner Pass. Both, the Brenner Pass and the Europa Bridge are part of the Brenner Autobahn (or motorway A13), which is the actual main highway in mention.
What I find outstanding is that in NYC it cost several billions to extend the subway station a couple of miles. Meanwhile in they are building about 20 miles of tunnel for just 11 Billions. I get that NYC is denser etc, but the numbers are so disproportionate.
Maybe NYC should outsource?
it's really not surprising, on the alps you are not digging underground but from the side and you have tons of space for construction sites and machinery, dumping dirt, housing workers. no human infrastructure inside the mountain either, no vibration problems, just geological issues if the job was not planned properly.
Subway extensions in Europe aren't cheaper. Subway stations are pretty expensive, but there won't be any stations in this tunnel.
The thing is, nobody owns anything a mile below the mountains. You just make a test drill and once you are satisfied with your findings, you are good to go. Nobody then cares.
Digging in a city is different. There is so much infrastructure, basements, foundations, wires, debris etc. Not much space for logistics etc…
That makes it exoensive
@@Malte_OJ You have a lot to learn about Europe. Presupuesto ampliacion linea 11 Metro de Madrid 10 km desde Conde Casal hasta Mar de Cristal con 5 paradas = 650 milliones Euro. Prolongement metro 14 jusqu'a l'aeroport d'Orly 207 million Euros/km. Costo previsto linea 5 Metro Milano compreso stazione e treni 105 millioni E/km.
Very interesting!
I remember going over the brenner pass in 1990s in a school
Minibus on a climbing trip ; the brakes where smoking on the way down …
And this is only one of the megaproject in contruction. Italy has amazing mountains, but on the counterpart this lets to extreme difficulties in building infrastructures. They are masters in civil engineering at time of building bridges and tunnels.
… as seen a few years ago in Genoa.
@@hape3862 and in many other parts of the world like China or the United States for example, where other bridges have collapsed!
@@intersezioni Non mi piace quando le persone si gonfiano. Questo mi stimola a farli sfogare un po'. Soprattutto quando un genovese, tra tutti, parla della fantastica costruzione di ponti italiani. 🤔
@@hape3862 Il ponte era fantastico ma se non lo curi nel tempo diventa ovviamente una merda
for context, San Francisco is building a 6 mi (10km) subway extension for $12B
But this is in a built up urban area where costs for labour, land and sound/dust/environmental mitigations for people who live and work in the area are $$$
I wonder how much more expensive it would be if San Francisco were in a seismically-active zone?
There is also the Lyon - Turin line with a 57,5km tunnel under the Alps (with a total of 162 km of galleries.)
It should be finished in 2032 or more.
This article is interesting but it must mention the Gotthard railway tunnel😢
It's not about the Gotthard tunnel, we didn't click for "tunnels under the Alps"
The Most important for freight rail is that you dont ned a second or third loco. You can run the alps flat with the same configuration from south to north.
The auto industry in Germany 🇩🇪 undermines all those mass transport infrastructure.
There are already 2 base Alps tunnel through Switzerland as an alternative!
Even better, they are not paid by EU but only by Switzerland itself :-)
@@patrickbaer7156 I don't understand to this day why we don't charge a toll fee for the tunnel! Probably some green bigger picture reason, for example avoiding more flights.
Good explanatory video of the project and its benefits although the last part about the war was unnecessary. They should have talked better about whether the merchandise would travel in a container or the entire truck would be taken by train as they do on a similar train in Switzerland.
They're Americans, they can only justify spending government money if it's for war.
Considering my city (Karlsruhe) spent 1,5 billion euros (1,6 billion dollars) on a tunnel about 6 km (4 miles) long 11 billion for a tunnel through the alps doesn’t seem that expensive
It won't cost only 11bn :-)
I don't know, I've done that road multiple times, I never felt it was slow or supper busy. Guess they looking for the future
$11 billion for 30 miles of tunnel
*cries in New Yorker vernacular*
Visionary
SÜDTIROL MENTIONED
I have been so curious to learn the details of how the engineers accounted for curvature. Is anyone able to point me in the right direction or provide more information?
The Balkans really need to develop their railway. It’d also be nice if all EU railway was compatible and connected
i love italy so much! love from germany
Same happend to the tunnel connecting Germany with east Denmark. What tunnel? you ask, yeah my point exactly.
europe must be the global standard. Sustainable Development.
Talk with Czechia , Poland and Baltic republics for an alternative rail corridor....
That's certainly long term planning. I'm assuming that the terrain prevents more dive sites to speed up the project
There are several dive sites, but for each one you have to dig a huge hole several hundred meters deep to reach the base tunnel. The access high in the mountains with the corresponding environmental, logistical and economic disadvantages makes the cost-benefit calculation unfavorable very quickly.
With such long timelines for completion, why is there no staging?
the quickest solution is to use multi trailer trucks like Australia.
Their standard single truck trailer combined length is allowed to be up to 19m, B-Double up to 26m, type 1 road train up to 36.5m and type 2 road trains up to 53.5m
Try getting these monstrosities around streets with with curbes that are almost U-turns and have a lane width of 3m (=10feet)...😅
How long until it's finished?
🎶Secret tunnel through the mountain🎶
A whole video about a transalpine freight axis without mentioning the existing Gotthard base tunnel in Switzerland (even if it‘s currently unusable due to the recent train accident).
Right? Badly researched.
once got doner in brenner when waiting for a train
Still cheaper than HS2!
No expensive London terminus!
A bargain compared to the big dig highway in Boston USA
Didn't seem like it had much traffic.
I look forward to watching grainy footage of zombie hordes bypassing the alps with this tunnel one day!
In india same work is happening in himalyas on two different places USBRL and char dham link project with dozens of tunnels and bridges
No. They had to stabilise the ground.
For goods people and electrical power
Aren't mountaneous regions seismic unstable?
Not by default.
Anyway tunnels and viaducts are seismic resistant
I drove tour coaches on this road. Beautiful road and scenery but not a nice place for a traffic jam
I used the mont blanc tunnel earlier last year. It cost €51 one way for just over 7 miles. Imagine how much they will charge for this one...
It is a railway tunnel only. A road tunnel 30 kilometres long would have to be restricted to all electric vehicles only, which is not presently economic. The problem with tunnels for vehicles with internal combustion engines is ventilation to avoid users being poisoned by exhaust fumes.
70 minutes savings - what about loading and unloading on either end? Many of the goods will have the typical "last mile"-issue and more that rail transport always will have.
Money saving. Freight trains are cheaper than trucks
we need similar tunnels in California and Pennsylvania
Le rail oui, la route non.
The issue will not be the Brenner-Tunnel. The issue will probably be Germany and it's unwillingness to built out the Railway infrastructure. There could be already a lot of traffic comming through the Alps via Railway. This is why Switzerland built the Gotthard-Basistunnel which is as of today the longest Tunnel through the Alps. They finished in 2016. It's the same principle; connect the north of Europe with the South. Also the Italians allready have competed their part. But the Germans have not even STARTED to build out their Railway infrastructure to support Railway transportation! Do you know when they planned to do it? In 2041. They have to lay down some freaking iron and can't even manage that while Switzerland dig through the Alps.
As much as I support your input, Germany has partly started, but due to the collapse of the building site near Rastatt due to the soft sandy foundation in the upper rhine plain, it got delayed several years - not mentioning the super slow tracks between Freiburg and Basel….
Yes, around Germany they booked new infrastructure but here they have only hysteria. That will cost us dearly.
BBT... Big Black Tunnel
Hopefully one day all railways and motorways will be in tunnels.
And why exactly? Why build tunnels everywhere when a large majority of alignments are at grade
Driver: How much is the toll?
???: Yes.
It's a rail tunnel
How Eu extend railway to Armenia without crossing Turkey?
Turkey is in the EU Custom Union and works with the EU on major projects. It is building high-speed rail too.
theres a little thing called the black sea. TEN-T also includes water and port infrastructure
@@ebbeb9827 wow genius . Armenia is landlocked . Good idea
@alperenbaser7952 yeah but Georgia is also a european ally so they can help and will most likely benefit themselves 🫰
@@awellculturedmanofanime1246 right . A country occupied by Russia gonna join the Western alliance just like Ukraine
Amazing how SOMETIMES long term thinking prevails 👏🏽👍🏾
They dug a shaft right next to a river?!?! That surely can’t end well:/
Well, it did. They are finished and the shafts are already mostly backfilled
Compared to the spending on war, it's nothing...
I feel like we know that rail is a better way to transport freight than trucks. It’s just way more efficient. In the US for example trucks are mostly used only to get the goods to their final destination. There’s no reason Europe shouldn’t do this too.
Why not use a tbm sure would reduce the time and eco cost
They do
And still 10% of the cost of HS2 between just outside London and not quite the main station in Birmingham. Just shows how useless the UK is
America's can't even keep our freight on the tracks.
Americans left the chat...
The trading purpose of the project is very good. The military part is very negative.
The video exaggerates the importance of military aspects in the planning. The economic reasons were far more important.
Such a tunnel is pretty useless for military logistics. You can just bomb the entrances and it's done. Maybe it could provide shelter from bombing or nuclear fallout.
Good point.@@MrSaemichlaus
and more significantly, it was the Brenner pass that the SS flooded through in 1943 to keep Italy from leaving the war when they tried too.
I was wondering why WSJ doesn't put this video clip behind its paywall. Why use UA-cam???
0:46: due to Brexit, Great Britain is no longer included. North Sea-Mediterranean Corridor (in turquoise) is now Ireland-Belgium-Netherlands and Ireland-France.
how would they go to Ireland? Build a tunnel around our under the UK?
@@becconvideonot by making use of the HS2.
@@becconvideoferry routes are included in TEN-T policy as well
It's strange. Europe loses half a million people per year (yes, even with immigration) and this will worsen rather than improve, yet they keep building for a future with fewer and older people. It's like adding rooms for the children you'll never had because your parents had many siblings.
Projects like these show the amazing things we Europeans can do if we put aside petty nationalistic disputes and just work together. European cooperation is the key for our future peace and economic prosperity.
I would have thought that they would restrict them "to driving only at night" not " restricted from driving at night" to avoid congestion during the day when more cars would be using the road?
The restrictions were introduced to protect residents from noise at night.
Ahh of course, thanks! @@reneschwab170
Did I hear the narrator say we have to wait until 2022 for something to be done? Time Warp?
2032 is when the base tunnel is suppose to open
2032?! I’ll be surprised if the earth still exists by that time.
her vocal fry is insane
Haha. Indeed. Horrible
Based Austria as allways
What happens to all the rock removed?
they reuse it somewhere.
i don't know what type of rock it is but they either reuse it in something like concrete or they use it as some kind of filler. for example in strengthening shorelines.
Partially to make concrete cast used for the vault. The rest disposed of in unused quarries.
Some of it is used to partially fill a valley in Austria