The Hallandsås Tunnel ( sv, Hallandsåstunneln), also known as the Hallandsås Ridge Tunnel or Scanlink, is a
railway tunnel
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
in Sweden. It connects the northern and the southern sides of the
Hallandsås
Hallandsås is a horst on the border between the Swedish counties Skåne and Halland.
It is part of a geological formation that includes an island in the sea outside the village of Torekov near Båstad called ''Hallands Väderö''. The geolog ...
geological formation (a
horst). The length is ( in one bore, in the other). It's utilised by the
West Coast Line, on the section between
Ängelholm
Ängelholm is a locality and the seat of Ängelholm Municipality in Skåne, Sweden with 39,612 inhabitants in 2010.
History
The old settlement ''Rynestad'' was mentioned around the year 1600.
The city was founded in 1516 as Engelholm by King Chri ...
and
Halmstad in southwestern Sweden. It has improved the connection between the cities of
Gothenburg, Sweden, and
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, Denmark. In the longer term it will be a key component in the
proposed Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
to
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
high speed rail link via Gothenburg,
Malmö
Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...
and Copenhagen.
The project was troubled by construction difficulties caused by
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...
ingress, and a scandal when dangerous sealant materials were used causing workers to become ill and killing local fish and cattle. These caused the project to be halted from late 1997 to 2005, and resulted in large cost over-runs. The project was finished in December 2015, over 23 years after start of construction.
Background
The tunnel is part of a larger project to upgrade the whole West Coast Line to
double track. In the context of this project, the single-track stretch over the Hallandsås ridge was both too
curvy and
steep to allow for easy double-track conversion and still allow for
high-speed passenger trains and heavy freight trains. Additionally, this stretch contained 13
level crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...
s, the single-track Båstad station, and a
passing loop
A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...
at
Grevie
Grevie is a locality situated in Båstad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenU ...
at which trains must meet (and accumulate significant delays if one or both trains are late). In order to avoid this
bottleneck
Bottleneck literally refers to the narrowed portion (neck) of a bottle near its opening, which limit the rate of outflow, and may describe any object of a similar shape. The literal neck of a bottle was originally used to play what is now known as ...
, some passenger train services between
Gothenburg and
Malmö
Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...
, as well as most freight trains, took a long detour along the Halmstad–Hässleholm railway (which is also too steep for efficient freight traffic) and on the congested Hässleholm–Malmö railway.
The Hallandsås Tunnel gives a time saving of 10 to 15 minutes for passenger trains. The capacity across the ridge will increase from 4 to 24 trains per hour (both directions together; in reality there will be 8-10 trains per hour in 2016). The tunnel project was conceived by the
European Round Table of Industrialists The European Round Table of Industrialists, abbreviated ERT, is an advocacy group in the European Union consisting of some 50 European industrial leaders working to strengthen competitiveness in Europe. The group works at both national and European ...
and the newly formed
Swedish Rail Administration
, genre =
, fate =
, predecessor = Swedish State Railways
, successor = Swedish Transport Administration
, foundation = 1988
, founder =
, defunct = 31 March 2010
, location_city ...
(''Banverket'', now part of the
Swedish Transport Administration
The Swedish Transport Administration ( sv, Trafikverket) is a government agency in Sweden, controlled by the Riksdag and the Government of Sweden. It is responsible for long-term infrastructure planning for transport: road, rail, shipping and avi ...
or ''Trafikverket'') in the 1980s.
Construction
1990s: Problems, scandal, and stoppage
Construction began in 1992, and the traffic opening was originally planned for 1995. However, construction was plagued by major difficulties concerning large amounts of water seeping in from surrounding rock, only a small fraction of which had been foreseen. Additionally, the original drill, which was said to drill 100 meters per week, broke down after drilling only . The rock was too soft, so the machine could not use it to pull itself forward. The contractor tried to drill traditionally, but had to spend a lot of effort on sealing the water leaks. The contractor went bankrupt and a new contractor, Skanska, was contracted. The new contractor had similar trouble but a better contract that gave compensation for troublesome rock conditions.
A scandal broke out when it was learned that a poisonous sealing compound ''
Rhoca-Gil {{unreferenced, date=December 2013
Rhoca-Gil is a type of industrial sealant produced by Rhône-Poulenc, used in the construction of tunnels to block the passage of groundwater into the tunnel. The sealant begins as a liquid, is then injected into c ...
'' was used during construction. This substance was linked to the death of nearby livestock. Rhoca-Gil contains
acrylamide
Acrylamide (or acrylic amide) is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH2=CHC(O)NH2. It is a white odorless solid, soluble in water and several organic solvents. From the chemistry perspective, acrylamide is a vinyl-substituted primary ...
, a toxic chemical that is
mutagenic and possibly
carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive subs ...
ic. The main contractor,
Skanska
Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. Skanska is the fifth-largest construction company in the world according to ''Construction Global'' magazine. Notable Skanska projects include renovation of t ...
, took no special precautions for the sealant, nor did it tell its own workers or the local population of the risks. By October 1997, local cattle and fish started dying and workers were becoming ill. The local press started an investigation. After tests were done showing high levels of acrylamide contamination, the site was declared a high risk zone and the sale of agricultural products from the region was banned. Skanska, along with
Rhone-Poulenc and
Swedish Railways all had criminal charges brought against them; some senior executives resigned as a result.
Construction was halted in late 1997. By this time, nearly had been bored in each tunnel: at the north end, at the south end, and at the central
adit
An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adit ...
).
2000s: Construction resumes
In 2005 construction resumed after a positive decision by the
Riksdag and the
Swedish government, hydrological and environmental remediation by Banverket and Skanska, and selection of contracting consortium Skanska-Vinci for the project. A new completion date of 2012 was initially estimated, later being revised to 2015.
As the consortium decided to drill only one tunnel at a time, only one
tunnel boring machine
A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole", is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. They may also be used for microtunneling. They can be designed to bore thro ...
(TBM) was used for the revived project. Nicknamed "Åsa", the TBM was in reality a comprehensive tunnelling machine; as it drilled through the strata, it simultaneously installed precast concrete tunnel lining segments behind it, and then injected a mortar-and-gravel slurry into the voids between the strata and the lining. The problem of drilling through saturated rock and soil was tackled by drilling a pilot tunnel ahead of the TBM, then freezing the surrounding rock to a temperature of −40 °C (−40 °F), thereby guaranteeing solid strata for the TBM's progress.
2010s: Breakthrough
On 25 August 2010, around 13:10
CET
CET or cet may refer to:
Places
* Cet, Albania
* Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus
* Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Comcast En ...
, breakthrough was achieved in the eastern tunnel. Drilling then switched to the western tunnel, which started in March 2011 from the workface at the south end and proceeded north. On 3 April 2012, this drive reached the central adit, whereupon , or 46 percent, of the western tunnel had been bored.
The remaining to be drilled, which totaled 15 percent of the entire drilling project, was expected to be particularly challenging, as it contains a section of poor quality bedrock and significant amounts of water and water pressure.
An extra freezing stage, plus extra time (4 to 6 months) allotted for freezing, and thicker concrete lining segments, was utilized in this problem area, which is longer than the adjacent area encountered in the eastern bore. On 4 September 2013, the second tunnel broke through.
There are 19 emergency cross-passages (including the central adit) between the two tunnels every . These were bored and lined separately, a process completed in February 2014.
The opening ceremony was held on 8 December 2015, and the tunnel opened for traffic on 13 December.
Cost
Cost overrun
A cost overrun, also known as a cost increase or budget overrun, involves unexpected incurred costs. When these costs are in excess of budgeted amounts due to a value engineering underestimation of the actual cost during budgeting, they are known ...
has been large. The cost was expected in 1992 to be 1 billion
Swedish krona (SEK). The cost from 1992 to 1997 was in reality more than SEK 2 billion, for less than half the tunnel length. Since the remaining cost at the beginning of 2005 was calculated to be more than SEK 4 billion, there was initially much debate and hesitation as to whether to halt or resume work. The total cost is likely to reach over SEK 10.5 billion (approximately 1.25 billion USD as calculated in 2015), before the project is finished.
New stations
As
Båstad station was located on the old main line, a new station to the north of the tunnel's northern portal, located at and called Båstad N (Båstad North), replaced the old station. The bare platforms for Båstad N were built in the 1990s when the tunnel was first started, and finished during 2015.
At the south end of the tunnel, two new stations for local trains (
pågatåg) opened,
Förslöv and
Barkåkra station.
Removal of the old railway
There were plans for a station for local trains at
Grevie
Grevie is a locality situated in Båstad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenU ...
on the old railway, but the
Båstad Municipality
Båstad Municipality (''Båstads kommun'') is a municipality in Skåne County in South Sweden, located in Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Båstad.
The present municipality was established in 1971 when the market town (''köping'') ''B ...
would have been required to finance maintenance of that railway in that case, so these plans were dropped.
On Nov 4, 2015 work was started to dismantle the old railway for re-use, recycling and disposal, and to rebuild the road surfaces at its crossings.
References
External links
Trafikverket: The Hallandsås ProjectSummary and timeline of the projectHallandsås milestone achievement June 10, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallandsas Tunnel
Railway tunnels in Sweden
Rail transport in Skåne County
2015 establishments in Sweden
West Coast Line (Sweden)