Herrenknecht has presented the second of two TBMs for Lot H53 on the Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT).

ARGE H53 BBT, a consortium of Porr and Marti, will use TBM Olga to build the East Tunnel towards Innsbruck on the Pfons-Brenner section of the railway. TBM Wilma, which was presented in March, will dig the West Tunnel.

Tunnelling is scheduled to start in autumn this year.

Each of the double shield machines has a 10.37m diameter, is 183m long and weighs around 2,700 tonnes.

Olga is the eighth TBM that Herrenknecht has supplied for the BBT.

The €959m (US$1bn) Lot H53 is the largest construction lot in Austrian history.

The 64km Brenner Base Tunnel – the longest rail tunnel in the world – is being built under the Alps to connect Italy and Austria, reducing the journey time from Fortezza to Innsbruck from 80 minutes to 25 minutes. It will be a key part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).