Planning optimisation for the Brenner Base Tunnel considering both maintenance and sustainability

On major infrastructure projects with a long period of operation, construction costs are only a fraction of the total lifetime costs. Transport infrastructure facilities can be considered sustainable when, in addition to safe operation, the availability is good with reasonable maintenance costs and correspondingly low operating costs. The precondition for the construction of sustainable transport infrastructure is the implementation of an interdisciplinary planning and design process with specialists in railway equipment and operation being involved in addition to the classic construction professionals in infrastructure design. The example of the Brenner Base Tunnel is used to demonstrate how the interdisciplinary design process can best be optimised. A systematic interdisciplinary design process, with the involvement of the specialists in all necessary fields of technology for the operation of transport infrastructure at an early stage, can reduce construction costs and permit the optimisation of the maintenance concept so that maintenance costs and the effects on operations (optimal closure times with low operational obstruction costs) are kept as small as possible. Particularly for longer rail tunnels, it is important to consider the overall picture in the design work and not just concentrate on the construction of the tunnel. On very large projects like the Brenner Base Tunnel, this demands that attention is paid to subjects, which lie in the distant future. © 2014 Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.