Boring is thus completed on the two planned tunnel tubes for the double-track railway. Now railway installations remain before opening for traffic, which is expected in 2015.
- Today we have taken the decisive step towards eliminating the single most difficult bottle-neck on the West Coast Line, says Per Rydberg, project director at the Swedish Transport Administration.
The West Coast Line currently consists of 85 percent double track. The sharp curves on the single track over the Hallandsås ridge constitute the line’s greatest remaining bottleneck. When the double track through Hallandsås is completed, a doubling of rail freight tonnage will be possible, and the number of trains can be increased from the current number of four to twentyfour per hour. The first trains are expected to pass through Hallandsåsen in 2015.
Since being launched in autumn 2005, the tunnel-boring machine Åsa has drilled through very varied geology consisting of gneiss, amphibolites and dolorite. To be able to get through the Mölleback zone, a highly decomposed and water bearing fissure, a 230-meter horizontal rock section was frozen. The tunnel is lined with concrete segments that form a waterproof tube.
- We have shown that it is possible to build a tunnel of high quality trough the complicated Hallandsås, while at the same time meeting the high environmental requirements. Our competent and dedicated co-workers are today worthy of every recognition for our common achievement says Per Rydberg.
