📋 Tender Overview
Firefighting in tunnels is an exceptional situation poor visibility and the impairment of the respiratory air caused by smoke as well as the special access situations at Semmering Base Tunnel partly through shafts present the rescuers with great challenges. In order to optimize the rescue operations in case of emergency the BB and the Lower Austrian fire brigade have developed a new unique vehicle specially designed for rescue in tunnels.New emergency vehicles especially for tunnelingThe so-called airship can move in both directions with its two control stations is extremely manoeuvrable and has the great advantage that emergency personnel can charge their breathing air devices during use.The vehicle can accommodate four people sitting or three sitting persons and a person lying. The drive is electric so it is not dependent on the oxygen content in the air said Josef Huber of the Lower Saxony Fire Brigade Association at the present handover of the vehicle to the Fire Brigade Gloggnitz.Currently two of these vehicles are ready for use on the Lower Austrian side of the Semmering Base Tunnel.For years a symbiotic cooperation between the BB infrastructure and the volunteer fire brigades in the project communities of the Semmering base tunnel has been underway. Should a fire occur during the construction work the local fire brigades are called in to help. The interaction of the fire brigades with the specially trained staff on the construction site and the orientation on site at annual large-scale exercises are practiced.Through regular exercises ongoing training and the right equipment we and the emergency services are well equipped for emergencies - even if we hope that this never happens praises BB project manager Gerhard Gobiet the successful cooperation.Semmering Base TunnelThe approximately 27 km long Semmering Base Tunnel between Gloggnitz and Mrzzuschlag brings more travel quality for the passengers and significantly increases the performance of rail freight transport. From 2026 passengers will travel environmentally and safely by train from Vienna to Graz in less than two hours. From this point on freight transport will also be handled in an energy-efficient manner on the new route. What has so far been experienced on the Western route with attractive travel times and dense train intervals will soon be implemented on the southern route. Thanks to the Semmering Base Tunnel the railway will now be able to compete with the car and truck on the north-south link between Austria and Austria.The Southern Route Traveling and Carrying the FutureBB-Infrastruktur AG is currently working on more than 100 large and small projects along the southern route part of the Baltic-Adriatic corridor. 200 kilometers of railway line will be modernized 170 kilometers newly built. 80 km of new tunnels and 150 new bridges were built. Over 5000 people are working on it. From the end of 2026 the trains will rush in 40 minutes from Vienna to Klagenfurt from Graz to Klagenfurt in 45 minutes. They pass many new stations on a total of 470 km and cross two mountains at high speeds - the Semmering and the Koralpe. The southern route project comprises the northern railway extension the extension of Vienna-Bratislava the new Vienna Central Station the goods center Vienna South the expansion of the Pottendorfer line the construction of the Semmering Base Tunnel eight modernized stations on the way from Bruck to Graz the modernized Graz Central Station and 130 kilometers of the new Koralmbahn. Together they create the conditions for a future-oriented passenger and freight traffic.
