​Installation work

The installation work on the platform and in the shaft base will last from mid-February to mid-March. At the same time, the conveyor belt system will be installed. The conveyor belt system transports the rock from inside the mountain to the loading facility. Afterwards, the material will be transported by trucks to various landfills for final storage. The conveyor system is scheduled to go into operation in April.

​Start of tunnelling

Drifting will start on 15 March 2021. As the conveyor belt has not yet been completed at that time, the material will initially be chucked using buckets, hoisted up with the tower crane and then removed from the platform using roll-off troughs.

First, the north logistics cavern is excavated to make room for the fixed installations (transformers, dust extractors, escape containers, etc.) in the underground area. Once the north logistics cavern has been excavated, the Marti team begins with the parament tunnels of the north cavern and the south logistics cavern. For space reasons, the logistics cavern is excavated with an excavator, the parament tunnels with a smaller roadheader and the actual caverns with two large roadheader machines.

​Outlook

Once tunnelling has started, around 60 workers will be working on the construction site in the heart of Bern. During tunnelling, around 144,200 m³ of rock will be excavated and 18,500 m³ of shotcrete will be used. If everything goes according to plan from now on and no unforeseen difficulties arise, the lot should be able to be handed over to the client in August 2026. This will be followed by the equipping of the future underground station of Regional Transport Bern-Solothurn with four new tracks.

Further facts about the project can be found on the reference sheet.