A three-day weekend has caused long tailbacks at the Gotthard tunnel in central Switzerland, with a south-bound traffic jam up to 14 kilometres long forming on Saturday morning. In most Swiss cantons, Whit Monday is a public holiday.
The Gotthard road tunnel is one of the major crossing points in the Swiss Alps. According to the association Touring Club Suisse, the congestion began on Friday morning with traffic jams stretching over 10 kilometers by the evening. The situation abated somewhat overnight.
By Saturday morning, the traffic jam in front of the Gotthard tunnel’s north entrance grew again to 14 kilometres, triggering delays of over two hours and 10 minutes between the Altdorf and Göschenen junctions in the canton of Uri.
The 17-kilometre Gotthard tunnel, which runs from Göschenen to Airolo under the famous Gotthard pass, links the German-speaking north with the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino in the south.
Opened in 1980, the road caters to roughly 17,000 vehicles daily. A separate, 57-kilometre train line – unveiled in 2016 as the longest in the world – also cuts through the mountain.
A second road tunnel, approved by Swiss voters in 2016, is expected to open in 2030 at the earliest.
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