As well as stretching technical and logistical capacities, the Gotthard project has also confronted the Swiss tunnelling sector with management and contractual issues on a new scale. Even for a country well used to boring through big mountains, the size and time span of the major works has been unprecedented.
“We are not used to work lasting more than three to four years perhaps. Contracts lasting ten years and more present all kinds of new challenges,” says AlpTransit chief engineer Heinz Ehrbar, “because how can you know at the beginning what the conditions will be a decade later?”
Substantial changes have been needed as work got into its stride. Uppermost of course have been the actual conditions of the ground, which are always unexpected in tunnelling. But in the Gotthard these things were written on a very large and sometimes expensive scale. Civils costs have risen from CHF 5.4bn (USD 5.4bn) in 1998 to CHF 7.9bn (USD 7.9bn) now. Timescales have been affected too with an original opening of the tunnel for 2015.
The completely unexpected faulted and squeezing ground at the Faido access and its impact on the excavation of the southern multi-function station was a significant issue that required major changes, including a redesign of the complex crossover tunnels to move them into better ground, and therefore complex changes in the contracts. Long time overruns were one result, offset to some extent by acceleration measures.
Not just the direct contractor for the works was impacted but the consortium building the adjacent tunnel section to the north (Sedrun), where ironically the bad ground had been most anticipated, and progress was in fact far better. South headings there were extended in length to compensate for the delays at Faido. Some provision for this was already included in the contracts but additional sections were eventually negotiated.
Though additional work is a “bonus” it also brings its difficulties on the contractor’s side, says Jakob Lehner from the Transco- Sedrun contractor group. “If your machinery has been selected for a certain capacity it may not be ready for the additional wear and demands of a longer tunnel.”
Rock conditions are not the only unknowns however, changes in social and political outlook have their effect too; one with a major impact has been the safety of tunnels in fire, which has become a higher priority after the Mont Blanc and other fire disasters at the turn of the century.
At Gotthard, the Swiss government responded to public concern by imposing new requirements for the ventilation and smoke systems at the emergency stop multi-function stations, requiring design changes and revisions.
Environmental issues and green politics have also grown in significance since the project was first agreed. While these are a large part of its raison d’être they also affected discussions on the location of works. Delays at the northern Erstfeld portal were cause by objections of this kind, which also produced design change.
“Such things are not cheap,” points out Adrian Wildbolz, the AlpTransit project supervisor for the northern works.
Like most of the AlpTransit engineers he says that a “spirit of Swiss compromise,” has prevailed largely in the work. For his own part he says that an attitude of working through problems as they happen and making agreements as far as possible now, “rather than years afterwards when the details are difficult to recall,” has kept the northern contracts moving smoothly.
Bigger issues faced the other contracts of course, but Ehrbar says that he is impressed that however difficult things have been for contractors, designers, the client and the workforce, “the work has always continued. That was very excellent behaviour of the contractors, that we could work together and find solutions.”
An important element has been the unit price contract system in Switzerland, he believes, with price set by the contractor and a bill of quantities. Contracts also were based on the use of the Swiss codes “almost without modification.” A central principle is that the ground “belongs” to the client, who has to take the risk for it or make very clear what risk is being handed over.
One issue that was confronted, say most of those involved, was the cultural difference between consortium members, with a very different attitude to claims and negotiations apparent sometimes. The Swiss contractors, who took a lead role in each grouping, tend to be more patient before turning to lawyers or accountants, it is agreed.
This was as much an issue within the contractors as it was outside, says Olivier Boeckli and it took a while for the disparate firms from Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland to settle in. In the TAT group conscious efforts were made to integrate the workforce particularly, he says, with mixed nationalities in the different work groups. “We even developed our own sublanguage on site.”
Cultural differences were apparent, says Renzo Simoni, AlpTransit Gotthard CEO, though he says relations with the contractors have generally been good “and always very professional.” A series of senior management meetings with contractors are held at six monthly intervals.
Simoni sits at the top 140 staff including local management teams, in particular sector management and the headquarters team in Lucerne. Through this client structure there was an agreed path for escalating any issues, beginning with best efforts to resolve matters at the local level and then upwards via the chief engineer to eventually the CEO.
Civils work continues and particularly on the Sedrun and Bodio/Faido contracts there are still a lot of issues to discuss, says Ehrbar. Meanwhile the latest stage of the work has changed tack. For the huge logistical complexity of the track, communication, electrical and signaling installation, a single huge contract has been let that offsets the risk of integrating the works onto the contractor, says Simoni.
A final element of his team’s task will be an 18-month commissioning and test period for the new systems. “A first stage will be on our side and then we will hand over in 2017 to the Swiss Federal Railway for their tests while we collaborate.”
Then, he says, the AlpTransit Gotthard will be wound up. Job done.
