A first major step has been taken in the construction of the world's longest underground rail link with a length of twice 64 kilometres in total. On Monday, July 6, 2020, with the completion of the 16.7 km long exploratory tunnel, proud tunnellers at the Brenner Base Tunnel celebrated the first decisive breakthrough of a Herrenknecht tunnel boring machine. A key structure for sustainable trans-European freight and passenger transport is being built on the north-south axis from Helsinki to Valletta. 8:27 a.m. early Monday morning, July 6, 2020: precise and confident, internationally experienced miners crack the last centimetres of rock with their tunnel boring machine. With the precision targeted breakthrough into the cavern on the Austrian side of the new Brenner tunnel, the first main breakthrough was achieved with a Herrenknecht tunnel boring machine (TBM).

Source: The North Africa Journal August 07, 2020 13:18 UTC