Trimble TILOS in action on the Brenner Base Tunnel Most Italy-bound travelers associate the Brenner, above all, with the long traffic jams that kick off the school vacations – it is the busiest connection between Austria and Italy, after all. However, that is about to change.
Overview
To relieve the most important corridor in Europe, traffic should shift from the highway to the railway. Thus, the Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT) project was born — a conduit between Innsbruck and Franzensfeste by Brixen, planned for completion by 2025. The joint project between Austria and Italy with an estimated budget of more than 10 billion Euros will be the world’s second-longest rail tunnel. At a length of 55 kilometers, it will be just short of the Gotthard Base Tunnel. Through the tunnel, the time needed to travel from Innsbruck to Franzensfeste will be reduced from 80 minutes to only 25.
Connected Time Location Diagram
Such a mammoth project requires detailed planning to even be feasible. A central element involved is a Time Location Diagram for construction project management, initially created with CAD software for the project submission in 2006. However, it proved too time-consuming over the course of the project, as the information could not be linked with each other according to the precedence diagram method (PDM). Changes in the plan, for example the incorporation of the requirements of a new permit or the allocation of a contract section, required a complete overhaul of the CAD planning.
“This process was tedious and prone to error,” explains Stephan Rieder from the project company, Brenner Basistunnel BBT SE. “That’s why we looked around for another solution. The choice went to the planning software, TILOS, from Trimble. The software operates very intuitively. Even employees with no former experience, could work with it after only a brief training session. In addition, expenses can be assigned to all processes,” elaborates Rieder.