The brenner base tunnel

From tunnel spoil to tunnel raw material Most of the tunnel spoil is transported on conveyor belts. The careful use of resources and of the environment goes without saying, as part of the huge Brenner Base Tunnel project. The construction of the Brenner base Tunnel involves the excavation of about 21.5 million cubic meters of spoil. Depending on the quality, this will either be landfilled or recycled. The processing and recycling of the material helps to preserve resources. The processed material can be used for the production of concrete for inner linings and base slabs as well as shotcrete. Since the tunnel spoil is very diverse due to varying geological condi- tions, the amounts of recyclable tunnel spoil also vary as construction proceeds. When more material is processed than is required for re-use, it is used as aggregate to produce concrete in other sectors. Universities and the industrial sector are developing innovative techniques and new in- frastructural plants in order to be able to use the huge amount of material as aggregate anyway. Research is done and tests are carried out in laboratories and on the construc- tion sites until suitability is proven. The processing into concrete aggregates is done in situ on the construction sites in dedicated gravel plants and concrete production facto- ries. A control system guarantees that the produced concrete complies with the required high quality standards. BRENNER BASISTUNNEL