On 30 June 2006, the last day of the Austrian presidency in the EU Council, leading politicians and public figures from north and south of the border came together at the Brenner Pass to celebrate the official launch and once again formulated a clear commitment to Europe’s biggest infrastructure project.

In addition to Austria’s Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, Vice-Chancellor and Transport Minister Hubert Gorbach, Undersecretary of State for Transport Helmut Kukacka, Governor Herwig van Staa and Councilor Hans Lindenberger as the long-serving project chief and spiritual father of the Brenner Base Tunnel, the EU Coordinator for the 2,200 kilometer long TEN axis from Berlin to Palermo, former EU Commissioner Karel van Miert was also present and took the opportunity to stress the importance of the BBT and its approaches.

Following a late cancellation by Italy’s Prime Minister Romano Prodi and the Ministers Alessandro Bianchi (Transport) and Antonio Di Pietro (Infrastructure), the Italian government was represented by Marco Palma as Diplomatic Advisor to the Infrastructure Ministry, Deputy Transport Minister Cesare De Piccoli and Governors Luis Durnwalder (South Tyrol - Bozen) and Lorenzo Dellai (Trent).

The ceremony was also attended by numerous representatives of the Austrian and Italian local and regional authorities, project partners, representatives of the relevant supervisory authorities and many other interested parties. Visitors from Germany, Switzerland and Belgium also traveled to the Brenner for the occasion.
The presence of so many representatives of the press, radio, television, and photo and Internet agencies underscored the high level of public interest in the project.
One of the highlights of the event was doubtless the musical accompaniment to the ceremony provided by the Innsbruck Federal Railway Band, which had rehearsed the Italian national anthem and the European anthem especially for the occasion.

After short words of welcome from the two CEOs of BBT SE, Arnold Schiefer and Gianluigi De Carlo, Prelate Raimund Schreier (Abbot of Wilten Monastery in Innsbruck) and Bishop Hermann Egger (Bozen-Brixen diocese) asked for God’s blessing and protection for the crews working on the construction of the exploratory galleries.

In their subsequent speeches, the various politicians reiterated the importance of this the biggest infrastructure project in support of the European idea and an improved European rail system. They also stressed the need to reduce the impacts on the environment and on the people living along the Brenner route as well as the need to upgrade the northern and southern approaches to the BBT.
Five minutes past two was the moment everyone had been waiting for: twenty years after the decision taken by the governments of Austria, Italy and Germany to produce a feasibility study for the Brenner Base Tunnel, the signal was given for the breaking of the sod – and thanks to the horn provided by the Austrian Federal Railways it was not to be missed!

In the marquee with the video screens installed for the occasion, live video transmissions from the first two construction sites in North Tyrol (Sill Gorge in Innsbruck) and South Tyrol (Aicha) showed the bulldozers in the act of breaking the sod.
After the official part of the program there was food and drink laid on for the gathering.
The starting shot for the work had actually been given on 5 May 2006 with the signing of a letter of comfort in Salzburg for the construction of exploratory galleries for what will be the world’s longest railway tunnel. Only a few weeks after this formal guarantee for the necessary funding had been given by the authorities of the two countries involved and the EU, the celebrations were held to mark the breaking of the sod, with the Brenner selected as the venue for organizational and symbolic reasons.
Half the cost of constructing the exploratory galleries is being funded by the European Union, with the other half allocated on the basis of the shareholdings in the BBT SE European Company.

The contracts already signed – worth a total of about 3 million euros – represent the start of the tendering and contract award procedures that are expected to be completed step by step by the end of the year. The total investment volume for the program of exploratory works comes to 430 million euros, 61 million of which will be applied for this year and a further 209 million by the end of 2007.
Um 14:05 Uhr schließlich war es dann soweit: 20 Jahre nach dem Beschluss der Regierungen Österreichs, Italiens und Deutschlands, eine Machbarkeitsstudie für den Brenner Basistunnel zu erstellen, konnten die Verantwortlichen das Signal zum Spatenstich geben – und dies war, Dank des von den Österreichischen Bundesbahnen zur Verfügung gestellten Typhons, unüberhörbar.

 
Mittels Live-Videoübertragung von den ersten beiden Baustellenflächen in Nordtirol (Innsbruck Sillschlucht) und Südtirol (Aicha) waren die mit Baggern durchgeführten Spatenstiche auf den beiden im Festzelt errichteten Videowalls zu sehen.
Nach dem offiziellen Programm wurde zu einem Umtrunk geladen.

 
Der Grundstein zum Auftakt der Arbeiten war durch die Unterzeichnung der „Patronatserklärung“ für die Errichtung der Erkundungsstollen zum künftig weltweit längsten Eisenbahntunnel am 5. Mai 2006 in Salzburg gelegt worden. Nur wenige Wochen nach dieser Zusage der Verantwortlichen beider Staaten und der EU zur Übernahme der Kosten konnte nun zur Spatenstichfeier, die aus organisatorischen und symbolischen Gründen am Brenner stattfand, geladen werden.
Die Kosten für den Bau des Erkundungsstollensystems werden zur Hälfte von der Europäischen Union getragen, der verbleibende Betrag wird der Struktur der europäischen Aktiengesellschaft BBT SE entsprechend aufgeteilt.

Die bereits vergebenen Aufträge in der Höhe von rund 3 Mio. Euro stellen den Start für die schrittweise zu erwartenden Ausschreibungen und Vergaben bis Jahresende dar. Das Gesamtinvestitionsvolumen für das Erkundungsprogramm beläuft sich auf 430 Mio. Euro. Davon sollen rund 61 Mio. Euro sollen noch in diesem Jahr, weitere 209 Mio. EUR bis Ende 2007 beauftragt werden.

Source: Quelle / Source: www.bbt-se.com