This twin-track railway tunnel cuts through the Semmering Pass and represents an important link between the federal states of Lower Austria and Styria.
The tunnel will relieve the existing single-track railway network - the Semmering Railway - which allows limited speeds due to curves and gradients. The construction of the base tunnel will increase capacity and significantly reduce journey times. The project is of great importance for the entire region. The Semmering Base Tunnel will enable faster and more efficient freight and passenger transport on the Vienna-Graz route. This will not only stimulate the economy, but also improve people's quality of life. As part of the new southern route, the tunnel strengthens Europe's Baltic-Adriatic corridor, so this project not only helps us to remain competitive, but also relieves the burden on the environment thanks to the improved possibility of transporting freight by rail.
Construction is progressing well: a further 22 km can already be travelled, leaving only 1.5 km of the 27 km still to be excavated. The inner lining is also making considerable progress, with around 25 metres being added every day and 175 metres every week, using formwork carriages with a length of 12.5 metres. Progress can also be seen in the emergency station, parts of the waterproof membrane have already been placed and the last layer of concrete will soon be poured. There is more good news about the TS-26 tunnel. The PORR team spent 13 months on the concrete work, using 110,000m3 of concrete. This work has now been completed since June - 3 months ahead of schedule. This progress was duly celebrated. We, as iC, were represented by Bernhard Hochgatterer and Michael Proprenter among the celebrators from 12 different countries.
We would like to congratulate the PORR team for their outstanding work and thank them for their collaboration.
