FIRST COMES THE PROVISIONAL LIGHTING...
...for installation on the tunnel walls. Provisional priorities also include the sub-distributors with power supply sockets for machinery, etc.
NEW NAME – NEW LOGO
ALPIQ BURKHALTER TECHNIK AG
Starting as a joint venture between Alpiq InTec and the Burkhalter Group,
Alpiq Burkhalter Technik AG (ABAG) is now an independent entity.
After making its name with rail technology installations in the Gotthard base tunnel, ABAG is a well-proven specialist in electrical infrastructure technology – not only for railway installations, but also for highways and power plants.
Brochure published by
Alpiq Burkhalter Technik AG
Hohlstrasse 190, CH-8004 Zurich
T +41 44 247 41 80 info@alpiqburkhalter.ch
Concept and realization: www.archipress.ch
Photos: www.danielboschung.com
From planning to installation of the machinery, materials and electrical power plant required during tunnel construction, the temporary works team covers everything, including all tests and inspections until dismantling and removal.
EVERYTHING STARTS WITH THE CABLES. Temporary works in the Gotthard base tunnel began at the south end, where time is short. Test runs on the Faido–Bodio section start already in December 2013.
For pulling in the medium and low voltage cables, ABAG had developed its own Multi Functional Vehicle (MFV), which can travel backwards and forwards in the tunnel. Immediately after the temporary works team – up to 40 men under Ewald
Krieg – had installed provisional lighting for the shell construction, they already started pulling in cables at the south end of the west tunnel. By the end of 2013, more than 700 kilometres of cable including fibre optics will have been installed in the two tunnels between Erstfeld and Bodio. For the Faido-Sedrun section alone, the MFF will have transported 200 cable reels in the tunnel.
Transporting and installing the electrical cubicles in the crosscuts will place very different demands. Depending on construction progress, they will either be transported by truck or by rail.
These heavy components, each weighing up to five tons, cannot possibly be moved in by manpower alone. The answer is
WORKING IN THE TUNNEL NEEDS A POWER SUPPLY,
AND THAT MEANS PULLING IN THE CABLES FIRST
The multifunctional vehicle (MFV) really comes into its own when cables have to be pulled in before any rails have been laid. The temporary works team profits most from this MFV, specially developed for the Gotthard base tunnel. air cushions, for which Ewald Krieg works together with a specialist company.
Specialists are also required for inspecting and approving the installations. They check all of them for correct operation prior to commissioning and placing under load. Organizing and scheduling these tests is however the responsibility of the temporary works team, and the same applies to the logistics. Decisions have to be taken on which equipment to use – cable pulling machines and low-loaders, lifting vehicles and forklift trucks – and on the right measuring devices and instrumentation. The same team is also responsible for dismantling and removal of the temporary works. To make room for the final installations, all temporary works – including cables and lighting, electrical cubicles, transformers and generators – are removed and disposed of section by section from the tunnel after construction.
This is not only a matter of guarantee time compliance, but also of meeting different requirements on the installations. One small example is the temporary lighting, which has to be replaced by a standard emergency lighting system.
After the first few metres of tunnelling, the ABAG temporary installations people are soon on the spot. Up to forty of them get to work supplying the tunnel with lighting, ventilation and cooling, and power for the machinery. About 50 million Swiss francs are spent on the temporary works installations alone.

It’s not just a matter of plug&play, especially not in a tunnel. Getting powered up requires generators, transformers, heavy cables, converters and switchgear cubicles. And above all, it needs experienced specialists who can plan well and are virtuosos at their job.
TUNNELLING IS A SPECIAL CHALLENGE, the temporary works as well. The 178 crosscuts in the Gotthard base tunnel, connecting the east and west tunnels every 330 metres, play an important role thereby.
When the tunnel is finished, they serve as an escape shelter in case of accident. And they also house the rail technology installations, including the temporary ones. Each crosscut is sealed off from both tunnels by a safety door, and has an ABAG double flooring system.
During construction work this is where the grounding cables are laid, the sub-distributors installed and connected.
Here the switchgear cubicles and transformers are brought in and wired. Likewise the uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) for temporary communications systems.
The first sub-distributor with power sockets is already installed at the north portal.
BECAUSE EVEN DURING CONSTRUCTION, power failures can have serious consequences, not only delaying work but also putting the people in the tunnel at risk. Since work safety is right at the top of our priority list, that is why there is an emergency power generator at the north and south ends of the tunnel as well as at the Amsteg and Faido entrances.
All these installations, which will make way for the permanent ones in the end, are necessary for powering the temporary works.
FIRST OF ALL, the provisional lights must be installed and connected – a whole galaxy of them, every twenty metres right along both tunnels. Work cannot start without them.
It is not only dark in the tunnel - 2000 metres deep in places
– but also hot (up to 40 ºC), moist (up to 90 % relative humid-
GETTING CUBICLES INTO THE CROSSCUTS:
NOT WITHOUT AIR CUSHIONS
Only a couple of centimetres to spare at the top, left and right as well. Millimetre by millimetre, the cubicles edge their way into the crosscuts.
A COMPLEX JOB: ELECTROTECHNICAL INSTALLATIONS
FOR THE TEMPORARY WORKS
When it comes to installing electrical equipment in the crosscuts, and connecting all the temporary works cubicles and distributors in the tunnel, the ABAG fitters also need to be experts.
ity), and dusty as well. Such working conditions are a health hazard and hinder work in progress, so temporary ventilation and cooling are installed for the duration. Enormous fans ensure a continuous change of air, and the dual 57-km tunnels are cooled by 114 kilometres of refrigeration piping.
gear cubicles and sub-distributors depends on the various supplier requirements. In spring 2009 Ewald Krieg started making his preparations. Only one year later the temporary works team began with the first installations at the south end of the Gotthard base tunnel.
APART FROM MAKING LIFE LESS UNCOMFORTABLE for the workers, these temporary installations also set up a power grid to operate all the machinery required.
A LOT OF REGULATIONS also have to be observed during planning and execution, such as the Swiss Accident Insurance
(SUVA) regulations on lighting intensity. And that is not all by any means. Not only the people in the tunnel are challenged by the harsh climatic conditions. The various voltages at which they run are provided by transformers, for example from 15 or 16 kV down to 230/400 V for the drilling machines.
ABAG temporary works chief Ewald Krieg, well-proven in the
Lötschberg base tunnel, has a complex and tightly scheduled planning phase behind him. For example, the number of switch-
ALSO THE MATERIALS HAVE TO STAND UP to extreme loading, corrosion, dust, and widely fluctuating temperatures.
And the same applies to the temporary works materials, some of which will have to stand up to the harsh tunnel conditions for six years.
WORKING UNDERGROUND DEMANDS EXPERTISE
AND TOLERANCE OF THE HARSH CLIMATIC CONDITIONS
The temporary works people have a tough job: pulling in cables for lighting, ventilation and cooling, installing enormous fans... Thanks to them, all those who follow will not have to work under such harsh conditions.