Gotthard Base Tunnel

After 64 percent Swiss voters accepted the AlpTransit project in a 1992 referendum, construction the tunnel began in 1996. Boring operations in the east tunnel were completed on 15 October 2010 in a cut-through ceremony broadcast live on Swiss TV. When it opens for traffic in late 2017, the tunnel will cut the 3.5-hour travel time from Zürich to Milan by an hour and from Zürich to Lugano to 1 hour 40 minutes.
The two portals are near the villages Erstfeld, Uri and Bodio, Ticino. Nearby are two other St. Gotthard Tunnels: the 1881 Gotthard Rail Tunnel and the 1980 Gotthard Road Tunnel.
The route over Gotthard Pass (or one its tunnels) is one the most important passages through the Alps on the north-south axis in Europe. Traffic has increased more than tenfold since 1980 and the existing road and rail tunnels are at their limits.