Swiss tunnel construction hits up against military bunker

Work on the second Gotthard road tunnel is expected to be finished in 2029. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

A large-scale project to build a second road tunnel through the Gotthard mountain has run into problems due to the presence of underground military bunkers, Swiss media has reported.

The Tages-Anzeiger wrote on FridayExternal link that at least one military bunker in the mountain has to be modified due to the tunnel construction, which began last year. As for the question of whether the army has had to displace any bunkers to make way for the work, the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) told the paper such information was “confidential”.

Neither FEDRO nor the army were willing to comment on how much the extra bunker-related construction work would cost.

The location and details of military bunkers – in particular command centres – are highly classified under the terms of the 1950 law on the protection of military installations, the Tages-Anzeiger writes.

Many other bunkers have meanwhile been declassified in recent decades: some have been sold off to private users, others are used as museums.

The Gotthard mountain in central Switzerland is a key transit point for north-south traffic, and already is the site of one road tunnel and two rail tunnels, including the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world’s longest used by rail.

The second road tunnel, to be built parallel to and 70 metres from the first, was approved by Swiss voters in 2016. The CHF2.14 billion ($2.3 billion) project, between Göschenen in the canton of Uri and Airolo in Ticino, is expected to be finished in 2029.

It is hoped the twin tunnels will ease the long traffic queues that regularly form at the tunnel during holidays.