The brenner base tunnel

The Brenner Pass has always been an important north-south connection over the Alps The route over the Brenner Pass has always been one of the most important north-south connections in Europe. The Brenner Pass lies 1,370 m above sea level. It is the lowest Alpine pass and can be crossed all year round. From beasts of burden to the most modern methods of transportation In the early Bronze Age, around 1,700 BC, this mountain pass was an important commer- cial link between the North Sea and the Mediterranean area. In the 14th century, 3,000 tons of freight including spices, wine, sugar, oil and cotton were transported over the Brenner Pass. The flow of freight over the Brenner increased constantly, so that at the beginning of the 19th century the volume of goods being carried over the Brenner every year, using horse-drawn wagons, had risen to 15,000 tons and then to 60,000 tons only 50 years lat- er. This led swiftly to capacity bottlenecks and the decision to build the Brenner railway line. The present-day Brenner railway line was built between 1860 and 1867. Rail and roadways A hundred years later, the highway was built. Since 1974, the Brenner Pass can be crossed using the Austrian A13 and the Italian A22 highways. Once the highway was completed, ten million tons of goods were freighted yearly over the Brenner. In 2008, the volume of freight was almost at the 50 million ton mark. After a 20% drop in heavy traffic due to the economic crisis in 2009, the volume of freight has again contin- ued to increase. In 2019, 223.5 million tons of goods were transported across the Alps. The number of lorries which crossed the Brenner Pass reached a record-high level of 11.5 million. Ap- proximately 22% of all lorries, i.e. 2.5 million vehicles, crossed over the Brenner Pass. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020 there was a 6.3% drop in the number of lorries, i.e. 2.31 million. Over 30% of all transalpine freight traffic travels over the Brenner Pass. Over two thirds of freight transport occurs by road, barely a third travels over the Brenner by rail. 5 BRENNER BASE TUNNEL