Too narrow section of track – supervisor concerned about sluggish construction of the A9 in Upper Valais – News

  • There is a whole list of problems with the work on the A9 motorway in Upper Valais.
  • An entire stretch of motorway was built too narrow, there were delays in construction, objections and additional costs.
  • Now the supervisory authority has investigated the problems – and yet questions remain unanswered.

How could it happen that the A9 between Raron and Gampel was built too narrow? It was about deviations of up to half a meter over a length of half a kilometer. The Swiss Federal Audit Office wanted to understand what was going on – and failed.

Because she couldn’t find any conclusive answers, as the responsible department manager Mischa Waber explains: “We were able to rule out certain points. We think that there could have been errors in the technical area – specifically in the measurement and data transmission.»

It is a fact that the technical possibilities at the Riedberg tunnel, for example, were overwhelmed by political decisions.

Because of the unexplained cause, the additional costs of around 400,000 francs will probably remain with the project participants, says the head of service Martin Hutter in the canton of Valais. The sections of track that have already been built and the construction site itself are now being checked more closely.

Construction companies have to bear additional costs

The piece that was too narrow has now been widened. But because there is no complete documentation here either, the supervisor is concerned about the A9 construction project. It’s complex, says Jürg Röthlisberger, Director of the Federal Roads Office (Astra), which will one day take over the A9.

More than half of the route lies in a tunnel in very demanding geological and hydrological conditions. “It is a fact that the technical possibilities, for example at the Riedberg tunnel, were overwhelmed by political decisions,” says the Astra director. This tunnel had to be additionally reinforced.

With the Eyholz tunnel, the additional costs amount to 50 million francs, which must be borne by the companies involved, as Keystone-SDA writes with reference to the Federal Supreme Court.

Massive cost overruns in tunnel construction


open box
close the box

Legend:

The Eyholz Tunnel near Visp.

Keystone/Olivier Maire

The construction companies concerned have to pay for the additional costs of around 50 million francs in the construction of the Eyholz tunnel on the A9 motorway in Upper Valais. This was decided by the Federal Supreme Court at the beginning of February in the dispute that had been going on for years. Thomas Rohrbach, spokesman for the Federal Roads Office (Astra), said this to the Keystone-SDA news agency on request.

The dispute was made public by the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) in its report published on Wednesday on construction defects on another section of the A9 between Raron and Gampel. During the construction of the 4.25-kilometer Eyholz Tunnel, the workers encountered geological difficulties, which led to massive cost overruns.

The construction consortium made additional financial demands. This was denied by the client, the cantonal department for national road construction, at the insistence of the Astra and the cantonal financial control of Valais. According to the court decision, only around 300,000 francs of the additional costs are to be charged to the federal government and the canton.

Office director Röthlisberger is confident that the A9 will be completed according to plan in two or three years – with the exception of the controversial section through the Pfynwald nature reserve.

source site-72