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To cut construction time in half, four access tunnels were built so that construction could start at four different sites simultaneously: Erstfeld, Amsteg, Sedrun, and Faido. A fifth at Bodio was added later. The two tunnels are joined approximately every 325 m (1,066 ft) by connecting galleries. Trains can move between the tunnels in the two multifunction stations at Sedrun and Faido. These stations house ventilation equipment and technical infrastructure and serve as emergency stops and evacuation routes.^[10]
Access to the Sedrun station site is by a level access tunnel 1 km (0.6 mi) long from the valley floor near Sedrun. At the end of the access tunnel, two vertical shafts lead 800 m (2,625 ft) down to the base tunnel level. A proposal to construct a functioning railway station, called Porta Alpina, at this site was evaluated, but the project was put on hold in 2007 and definitively cancelled by the federal authorities in 2012 as uneconomic.^[24]
The final breakthrough in the east tube occurred on 15 October 2010 at 14:17 +02:00.^[25]^[26] The final breakthrough in the west tube occurred on 23 March 2011 at 12:20.^[27]^[28]
On 16 December 2013, the operational test phase started on a 13-kilometre (8.1 mi) stretch in the southern section of the west tube between Faido and Bodio. Its purpose was to test the infrastructure and any ancillary systems.^[29]
On 31 October 2014, the railway track installation was completed. A gold sleeper on the very last part of the track was installed during the event to mark this milestone of progress.^[30]^[31]

Allocation of work

Aerial view of the Erstfeld area (north portal) in 2009

The contracts were awarded in sections:

Erstfeld (the 7.7 km (4.8 mi) section from Erstfeld to Amsteg), with two tunnel boring machines (TBM) boring the two tubes. The break-through of the east tube between Erstfeld and Amsteg took place on 15 June 2009. The portal area was surface-mined.
Amsteg (the 11.3 km (7.0 mi) section from Amsteg to north of Sedrun), ARGE AGN (Strabag and Züblin Murer) received the contract for work in this sector.^[32] On 9 December 2009, the Amsteg section was officially delivered to the owner for fitting-out,^[33] with civil engineering, construction, concrete and lining work completed in early 2010.^[34]
Sedrun (the 8.6 km (5.3 mi) East tube and 8.7 km (5.4 mi) West tube in the section immediately north and south of Sedrun), along with work performed by Transco (Bilfinger SE, Implenia, Frutiger and Impresa Pizzarotti).^[35]^[36] The final breakthrough in the west tube occurred in March 2011.^[37] The northbound tubes from Amsteg to the Sedrun multifunction station (north) were handed over to the railway systems contractor Transtec Gotthard on 15 September 2011, the date specified in the construction schedule.^[38]
Faido (13.4 km (8.3 mi) East tube and 13.6 km (8.5 mi) West tube in the section from south of Sedrun to Faido), with Consorzio TAT (Alpine Mayreder Bau, CSC Impresa costruzioni, Hochtief and Implenia and Impregilo).^[39]
Bodio (15.9 km (9.9 mi) East tube and 15.6 km (9.7 mi) West tube in the section from Faido to Bodio), with work performed by Consorzio TAT (Alpine Mayreder Bau, CSC Impresa costruzioni, Hochtief, Implenia and Impregilo).^[39] Civil engineering construction, concrete and lining works were completed in early 2010.^[34]

Deaths during construction

Nine workers lost their lives during construction; one in the Amsteg section, two in the Sedrun section, and three each in the southernmost Faido and Bodio sections.^[15] These were:

Andreas Reichhardt (33) from Gera, Germany, the first victim of the tunnel construction, was hit by a boring bar that fell down 700 m, on 8 June 2000.^[40]
Jacques Du Plooy (23) from South Africa, was buried by excavation material on 12 March 2002.^[41]
Heiko Bujack (35) from Harbke, Germany, was hit by a rock on 3 April 2003.^[42]
Albert Ginzinger (37) from Mauterndorf, Austria, was killed by being crushed by a toppling cable drum on 11 September 2003.^[43]^[44]
Andrea Astorino (31) from Italy and Salvatore di Benedetto (23) from Giubiasco, Switzerland, were hit by a colliding mine train on 21 January 2005.^[45]^[46]
Thorsten Elsemann from Oberhausen, Germany, was crushed to death by a mine train on 23 November 2006.^[47]
Hans Gammel from Germany was catapulted out of an inspection train on 24 June 2010.^[48]
Giuseppe Liuzzo from Naso, Italy, fell from a scaffold on 16 July 2012.^[49]

Inauguration

On 31 May 2016, a day ahead of the inauguration, the nine people who died during construction were commemorated in a ceremony at the north portal in Erstfeld that was led by a Catholic vicar general, a vicar of the Evangelical-Reformed Church of Uri, a Jewish rabbi, and a Muslim imam. A bronze memorial plaque with their names – four coming from Germany, three from Italy, and one from each of South Africa and Austria – was unveiled by AlpTransit Gotthard CEO Renzo Simoni.^[15] A Catholic shrine to Saint Barbara, the patron of miners, stands inside the tunnel as a memorial.^[50]
The tunnel was officially inaugurated on 1 June 2016.^[51] At the northern entrance in Erstfeld, Swiss Federal President Johann Schneider-Ammann spoke of a "giant step for Switzerland but equally for our neighbours and the rest of the continent", while a live relay carried a speech given by transport minister Doris Leuthard at the southern entrance in Bodio. The first journey carried hundreds of Swiss citizens who had won tickets in a draw, while the assembled guests in Erstfeld, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, attended an opening show featuring dancers, acrobats, singers and musicians celebrating Alpine culture and history.^[50]
The inauguration ceremony, directed by Volker Hesse,^[52] generated some controversy. It was described as out-of-place, weird,^[53] or even satanic.^[54]^[55]