Furka Tunnel Giant rotator for restoration work
Roughly 1,800 short and long tunnels are part of Switzerland's extensive rail network. The most important is the longest rail tunnel in the world: the 57 km Gotthard Base Tunnel, which has been in operation since 2016. The Furka Base Tunnel has already been in use since 1982, after twelve years of construction. Its approximately 15.4 km long, mostly single-track tube connects the cantons of Valais and Uri from east to west. Only five Swiss railway tunnels are longer. After more than four decades of use, the Furka Tunnel has been under renovation since 2024.
The project
On behalf of Matterhorn Gotthard Infrastruktur, the Marti Furka Tunnel consortium is overseeing the “Furka Tunnel Renovation” project. As part of the renovation work, which will take place between summer 2024 and spring 2029, the safety standards in the tunnel are to be significantly increased. The focus here is on ensuring the options of self-rescue and rescue by third parties. In addition, new shoulders, including drainage and cable systems, will be built, and the existing gravel road will be replaced by a new slab track.
The partners
The Marti Furka Tunnel consortium is part of Marti Tunnel AG and is one of over 80 subsidiaries of the Marti Group that operate in all areas of the construction industry. Marti started out as a small family business in 1922 and has grown over the decades. Today, the Marti Group is involved in a wide range of construction projects in Switzerland and around the world.
As an efficient partner, ARBOR AG has been selling and maintaining a wide range of industrial trucks, including Svetruck heavy-duty forklifts and aerial work platforms, for over six decades.
The attachment
The dimensions of the construction site require the appropriate attachment-lift truck combination: A 52T351 Rotator with terminal west suspension suitable for a Svetruck 52120-60 heavy-duty lift truck. This is used to pick up and empty large debris skips specially designed for this job. The challenges here are the dimensions of the skip – 6,000 mm long, 1,800 mm wide, 1,800 mm high, the empty weight (3,000 kg) and the potential filling weight (26,500 kg) resulting from a capacity of 14 cubic meters. In order to meet these challenges in the long term, the robust KAUP Rotator has a load capacity of 36 tons at a load centre of 1,200 mm, a double rotary drive and central lubrication which can be supplied with lubricant directly from the existing system on the lift truck, as well as the necessary high torque (start-up: approx. 81,000 Nm // running: approx. 168,000 Nm).
The operation
