Efficient LED light for the Gotthard Tunnel
The longest road tunnel in the Alps has been fitted with new passage lighting, implemented by NORKA in cooperation with its consortium partner Kummler+Matter EVT AG.
The Gotthard Road Tunnel at 16.9 kilometres is not just the longest one in the Alps, but is also the most important Swiss route through the Alps. Around 17,500 vehicles pass through this corridor on average every day. Last year, the tunnel was fitted with new passage lighting using energy-efficient LED technology, which requires up to 50% less energy than its preceding solution with fluorescent lamps.
The Gotthard Road Tunnel at 16.9 kilometres is not just the longest one in the Alps, but is also the most important Swiss route through the Alps.
Conquering the Gotthard has always been a challenge. On 5 May 1970, the Swiss began drilling the tunnel – almost 17 kilometres through the rock, from Göschenen in the canton of Uri to the Ticino village of Airolo. Ten years later, the time had finally come: on 5 September 1980, the tunnel was opened to traffic. For centuries, it had been considered almost impossible to cross the Alps at this point, but from that moment on, crossing the Gotthard by car now only took quarter of an hour. However, the Gotthard Road Tunnel is now accordingly in need of a comprehensive overhaul, which is scheduled to begin in 2029. By then, the second tunnel is expected to be completed which will allow the major road connection to remain open during the renovation.
However, when it came to upgrading the lighting system, which was also showing its age, the project team did not want to lose any more time, choosing to convert it to modern LED technology as quickly as possible. ‘The future lighting must guarantee safe operation and high availability,’ explains overall project manager Hanspeter Haas from the Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO). ‘However, we also expect the energy efficiency to be higher and anticipate a saving of 30 to 50 percent,’ says Haas. Since 2011, FEDRO has been using sustainable LED technology and successively replacing the lighting in the national road tunnels.
A rewarding partnership
Managing a project of this size and scope is a special challenge, even for an experienced luminaire manufacturer like NORKA, and one that requires a competent partner. NORKA Managing Director Florian Schönfeld explains: ‘The tender for this large project involved finding two partners, a luminaire manufacturer and a company for on-site installation.’ This resulted in the establishment of the Relamping Gotthard 2020 consortium with the Swiss company Kummler+Matter EVT AG in Zurich. ‘We have a reliable partner at our side in Kummler+Matter, with whom we have already completed a number of projects to date,’ adds Project Manager Markus Starkloff.
On the one hand, it was necessary to offer a product solution that would continue to use the existing stainless steel luminaire housings. On the other hand, it had to be ensured that logistics and on-site installation worked hand in hand within a strictly limited time frame. The complete conversion of the passage lighting took place during the regular maintenance weeks in the Gotthard Road Tunnel. During several night closures lasting just under a week in the period from April to the end of September 2021, not only were the lighting inserts replaced, but all other systems in the tunnel were also checked and maintained – from the ventilation to the energy and water supply to the emergency telephone.
During several night closures lasting just under a week in the period from April to the end of September 2021, not only were the lighting inserts replaced, but all other systems in the tunnel were also checked and maintained – from the ventilation to the energy and water supply to the emergency telephone.
Effective and efficient
The existing installation offered the best conditions for the LED conversion: the rust-free housings were in good condition, the seals functioned perfectly, the cabling in the tunnel was in place and the cable glands of the luminaire were intact. The new luminaire insert from the NORKA VERNO FIT range, specially developed for this project, now ensures continuing good visibility. With this LED driver kit solution, only the reflector, lamp and driver are replaced.
While the previous solution was operated with 58 W FL lamps, the new luminaire inserts now only require 28 W at 230 mA operating current; they also provide up to 4880 lm – 3,760 lm of which reach the roadway due to losses through the glass pane. With a beam angle of 120 degrees and a colour temperature of neutral white 4000 K, they produce the recommended average roadway luminance of up to 8.5 cd/m² in the event of an incident at full power. In normal operations, the lighting system is dimmed to 40% producing 3.5 cd/m² on the tunnel passageway. In the event of a power failure, every seventh luminaire on the east wall on the escape route side has its own emergency power supply so that safe lighting of the tunnel is guaranteed at all times.
The new luminaire insert from the NORKA VERNO FIT range, specially developed for this project, now ensures continuing good visibility. With this LED driver kit solution, only the reflector, lamp and driver are replaced.
Meticulous planning – united team spirit
Alain Gatti from the local site management ingegna AG puts it in a nutshell: ‘We really were a team. The assembly and logistics teams did a super job – and I’m truly grateful for that.'
NORKA produced a total of 14,000 LED luminaire inserts in its factory in Hülsen on a production line specially set up for this purpose. This was a huge challenge that was preceded by extremely meticulous planning, because compared to the number of pieces to be produced, the time frame was relatively small. Thanks to the extraordinary commitment of all the employees involved, the first truck with 4,000 luminaire inserts left the factory for Göschenen on time at the end of March last year. On site, six highly motivated assembly teams ensured that in just 20 night-time shifts all existing luminaire inserts in the passage lighting were removed, the new LED inserts with reflector were mounted and the old fluorescent tubes were disposed of properly – and all of this partly at high temperatures of up to 35 degrees inside the tunnel. Alain Gatti from the local site management ingegna AG puts it in a nutshell: ‘We really were a team. The assembly and logistics teams did a super job – and I’m truly grateful for that.'
The longest road tunnel in the Alps has been fitted with new passage lighting, implemented by NORKA in cooperation with its consortium partner Kummler+Matter EVT AG.
Project:
Renewal of the passage lighting in the Gotthard Road Tunnel
- Replacement of the reflectors, lamps and ballasts, including manufacture, delivery and mounting
Property owner: Federal Department of the Environment,
Transport,
Energy and Communications (DETEC)
Federal Roads Office (FEDRO)
Overall Project Manager: Hanspeter Haas, specialist for operating and safety systems (BSA)
Contracting authority: Office for the Operation of National Roads
(AfNM), Flüelen, Switzerland
Project Manager: Stefan Indergand
Deputy Project Manager: David Tresch
Local site Management: ingegna AG
Project Manager: Alain Gatti
Execution: Relamping Gotthard 2020 consortium: NORKA GmbH & Co. KG
and Kummler+Matter EVT AG
Project Managers: Markus Starkloff, Ferdinando Rossi
Project realisation: 2020/2021
Fotos: NORKA/Frieder Blickle
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