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The Hallandsås Tunnel (), 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 using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
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 geologica ...
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 urban areas of Sweden, locality and the seat of Ängelholm Municipality in Skåne, Scania, Sweden with 42,131 inhabitants in 2017. History The city was founded in 1516 as Engelholm by King Christian II of Denmark, who moved the se ...
and
Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational urban areas of Sweden, city at the mouth of the Nissan (river), Nissan river, in the provinces of Sweden, province of Halland on the Sweden, Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat ...
in southwestern Sweden. It has improved the connection between the cities of
Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
, Sweden, and
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
, Denmark. In the longer term it will be a key component in the proposed
Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) 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 of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
to
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
high speed rail link via Gothenburg,
Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...
and Copenhagen. The project was troubled by construction difficulties caused by
groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...
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 A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...
. 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, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...
s, the single-track BÃ¥stad 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 o ...
at
Grevie Grevie is a locality situated in Båstad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the we ...
at which trains must meet (and accumulate significant delays if one or both trains are late). In order to avoid this
bottleneck Bottleneck may refer to: * the narrowed portion (neck) of a bottle Science and technology * Bottleneck (engineering), where the performance of an entire system is limited by a single component * Bottleneck (network), in a communication network * ...
, some passenger train services between
Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
and
Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...
, 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 for Industry (previously known as the European Round Table of Industrialists), abbreviated ERT, is a cross-sectoral forum and advocacy group in the European Union consisting of some 60 European industrial businesspeople wo ...
and the newly formed
Swedish Rail Administration The Swedish National Rail Administration () was a Swedish state administrative authority which acted as owner on behalf of the State and maintained virtually all main railway lines in Sweden; except for short sidings for freight, heritage railwa ...
(''Banverket'', now part of the
Swedish Transport Administration The Swedish Transport Administration () 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 aviation. It owns, c ...
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 Rhoca-Gil is a type of industrial sealant produced by Rhône-Poulenc, used in the construction of tunnels to block the passage of groundwater inside. The sealant begins as a liquid, then is injected into cavities which need to be sealed, and polyme ...
'' 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
mutagen In genetics, a mutagen is a physical or chemical agent that permanently changes genetic material, usually DNA, in an organism and thus increases the frequency of mutations above the natural background level. As many mutations can cause cancer in ...
ic and possibly
carcinogen A carcinogen () is any agent that promotes the development of cancer. Carcinogens can include synthetic chemicals, naturally occurring substances, physical agents such as ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, and biologic agents such as viruse ...
ic. The main contractor,
Skanska Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. It was established in 1887 as a concrete product manufacturer. History Aktiebolaget Skånska Cementgjuteriet (Scanian Cement Casting Ltd) was established i ...
, 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 Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
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) or stulm is a horizontal or nearly horizontal passage to an underground mine. Miners can use adits for access, drainage, ventilation, and extracting minerals at the lowest convenient level. Adits are a ...
).


2000s: Construction resumes

In 2005 construction resumed after a positive decision by the
Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...
and the
Swedish government The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden () is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and their cabinet ministers (). The Government is responsible for its actions ...
, hydrological and
environmental remediation Environmental remediation is the cleanup of hazardous substances dealing with the removal, treatment and containment of pollution or contaminants from Natural environment, environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment. Remediation may be ...
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" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...
(TBM) was used for the revived project. Nicknamed "Ã…sa", 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 Â°C (−40 Â°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 The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; sign: kr; code: SEK) is the currency of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use for the krona; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it but, espec ...
(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
BÃ¥stad BÃ¥stad () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of BÃ¥stad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden, with approximately 5,000 permanent residents. It is however one of Sweden's most typical summer resorts. The population is presumably mor ...
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, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the we ...
on the old railway, but the
Båstad Municipality Båstad Municipality () is a Municipalities of Sweden, 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' ...
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 Project

Summary and timeline of the project

Hallandsås milestone achievement June 10, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallandsas Tunnel Railway tunnels in Sweden Rail infrastructure in Skåne County 2015 establishments in Sweden West Coast Line (Sweden) Båstad Municipality