Simplon Tunnel

Simplon Tunnel, railway tunnel from Iselle, Italy, to Brig, Switzerland, one of the longest railway tunnels in the world and one of history’s great engineering feats. Running about 20 km (12.5 miles) long, it was the largest of the great Alpine tunnels when it opened to traffic in 1906.

The Simplon Pass was an important trade route between northern and southern Europe from the 13th century. It was improved in the beginning of the 19th century by a road constructed by Napoleon I. Following the successful completion of shorter Alpine tunnels, the Simplon Tunnel was undertaken in the 1890s by Alfred Brandt, head of the German engineering firm of Brandt, Brandau & Company and inventor of an efficient rock drill. Because of the great depth of the tunnel—more than 1.6 km (1 mile) at its deepest point under Monte Leone—and consequent high temperature, Brandt developed a new tunnelling technique. He divided the tunnel into two separate galleries (separate tunnel headings parallel to each other) 17 metres (55 feet) apart. Thus, two pilot headings could be driven simultaneously, with crosshatches providing ventilation and a circuit for work trains. Many serious problems were overcome in the construction, beginning with the deflection of surveying instruments by the gravitational fields of the mountains and including water inrushes of up to 49,270 litres (13,000 gallons) a minute. At one point a stretch of fault rock riddled with springs was overcome only by the radical expedient of lining the pilot heading with 74 steel frames, each 50 cm (20 inches) thick, instead of conventional timbering. Temperatures of more than 49 °C (120 °F) were encountered.

Brandt died long before completion of the first gallery, which was holed through in January 1905. Various problems, including the outbreak of World War I, postponed completion of the second gallery until 1921 (opened to traffic in 1922).