Tunnels on the A3 in Switzerland: Basel to Sargans

91 rows are rendered in total, so 56 of them carry a note or a blank where a length belongs and are shown without being counted. The middle half of the table runs from 0.26 km to 1.34 km, and that band is where most of the engineering on this page actually sits.

The entries sum to roughly 34.94 km of bore, an average of about 1 km each, though that average describes no actual row. The median entry measures 0.55 km, so half the table sits below that and half above, which is a better guide to the typical structure here than the headline figure.

The shortest recorded entry is 0.14 km against 5.76 km at the top, a spread of 41.14x across the same table. The three longest entries alone account for 13.93 km of the 34.94 km on this page, which is 40 per cent of the total from 3 of 35 rows.

35entries listed
5.76 kmlongest bore
34.94 kmtotal length

The record table

How this archive measures: lengths, bores, dates and ordering

Tunnels and Viaducts on the A3 in Switzerland, Basel to Sargans
Tunnel/ Viaduct	Direction Sargans	Direction France	Notes
			F-CH Border. Canton BS
			Exit 1 Basel Euro Airport
			Exit 2 Basel Kannenfeld
			Exit 3 Basel St.Johann
			Exit 4 Basel Klybeck
St. Johann	1 090 m	1 090 m
Dreirosen	200 m	200 m
Horburg	640 m	640 m
			Exit 5 Basel Kleinhuningen / Connection A2 dir. German border / Start of section in common with A2
TC Schwarzwald	560 m	560 m
			Exit Basel Wettstein
			Exit Basel Breitte
TC Pratteler	148 m	-
TC Singer 1	-	150 m	on Exit Basel City
TC Singer 2	320 m	-	on Exit Basel City
			Connection Hagnau J18 Delemont
Pratteln*	900 m	900 m	Canton BL
			Exit Pratteln
	BP	BP	Service Areas "Pratteln"
			Exit Liestal
			Connection 13 " Augst" A2 (Chiasso) / End of section in common with A2. Canton AG
			Exit 14 Rheinfelden. Connection D border - A861
			Exit 15 Rheinfelden Ost
			Exit 16 Eiken
			Exit 17 Frick
			Exit 18 Effingen
Boezberg	3 705 m	3 705 m
Schinznacherfeld	450 m	450 m
Habsburg	1 530 m	1 550 m
			Exit 19 Brugg- Lupfig
			Connection 20 Birrfeld A1– Geneve / Start of section in common with A1
			Exit Baden
Baregg	1 390 m	1 390 m
			Exit Neuenhof
			Exit Wettingen
			Exit Dietikon. Canton ZH
			Connection 26 "Limmattaler kreuz" A1-A4 / End of section in common with A1.Start section in common with A4
Limmat	160 m	160 m
			Exit 27 Urdorf Nord
Honeret	450 m	450 m
			Exit 28 Urdorf Sud
Eggrain	443 m	496 m
			Exit 29 Uitikon. Tunnel Ristet ( 448 m - 352 m ) on ramps
Reppischtal	220 m	220 m
Hafnerberg	1 389 m	1 347 m
Lunnerental	140 m	140 m
			Exit 30 Birmensdorf
Aescher	2 176 m	2 142 m
			Connection 31 "Zurich West" A4 (Altdorf). End section in common with A4
Uetliberg	4 460 m	4 460 m
			Connection 32 "Zurich Sud" A3W (Zurich Center)
Entlisberg	550 m	550 m
			Exit 33 Wollishofen
			Exit 34 Thalwil
			Exit 35 Horgen
			Exit 36 Wadenswil
	Esso	Shell	Service Areas "Herrlisberg"
			Exit 37 Richterswil
Blatt	510 m	510 m	Canton SZ
			Exit 38 Wollerau
	Esso	Esso	Service Areas "Fuchsberg"
			Exit 39 Schindellegi
			Exit 40 Pfaffikon
Altendorf	600 m	600 m
			Exit 41 Lachen
			Exit 42 Reichenburg / Connection A53 Kloten. Canton GL
			Exit 43 Bilten
	Shell	BP	Service Areas "Glarnerland"
			Exit 44 Niederurnen
			Exit 45 Weesen
Ofenegg	-	370 m
Weisswand	-	1 100 m
Kerenzer	5 760 m (5 800)	-
Standenhorn	-	460 m
Glattwand	-	160 m
Muhlehorn	-	260 m(300)
	-		Exit 46 Muhlehorn
Stutz	-	180 m
			Exit 47 Murg - Muhlehorn
Murgwald	1 442 m (1 400)	1 402 m(1 400)
			Canton SG
Quarten	1 339 m (1 300)	1 268 m(1 200)
Fratten	320 m (300)	320 m (300)
	Avia	-	Service Area "Bergsboden"
Hof	560 m (500)	560 m (500)
Raischibe	730 m (800)	730 m (800)
		-	Exit 48 Walenstadt
			Exit 49 Flums
			Exit 50 Sargans
			Connection 51 "Sarganserland" A13 (Bellinzona – St.Margrethen)

How this table is compiled

1 of the 35 measured entries exceed five kilometres, and those are the ones that carry a full ventilation and escape regime. Laid end to end the entries on this page would run 34.94 km, which is a number with no engineering meaning but a useful sense of the scale of what is catalogued.

24 entries fall below a kilometre, short enough that portals and approaches usually decided their cost more than the bore itself. Uetliberg at 4.46 km and Boezberg at 3.71 km follow it, and lengths are given per carriageway because the two bores of a dual route are rarely cut to the same length.

The route table lists 35 structures with a recorded length, giving both carriageways where the two bores differ. The material on this page is held in 10 captions rather than in running text, 112 words of it, each written against the image or row it belongs to by the compiler who put the page together.

The longest stands 1.3 km clear of the next longest, which is the margin to watch when a new scheme is announced. The captions name 22 distinct places and structures — Start, Zurich and Connection among them — and those names are the index into the length tables where each is recorded with its own figure.

Also recorded here are Habsburg at 1.55 km and Murgwald at 1.44 km. A tunnel list for Switzerland reads differently from a neighbouring country's: 3 of these 35 structures pass three kilometres, and the same journey time is bought with one long bore in one country and a dozen short ones in another.

Reading the figures

Between the longest and the tenth-longest the drop is 4.66 km, which is the part of the table that changes when a single scheme opens. Where one of these 35 lengths disagrees with an operator's own figure for Switzerland, the table keeps the published value and notes the difference instead of averaging the two.

Lengths for Switzerland are recorded in metres which is how the operators publish them and why the shortest entry here reads as 140 m and not a rounded figure. The longest entry is 41.1 times the shortest and 10.5 times the median, which is the quickest measure of how uneven the table is.

A new scheme in Switzerland would have to beat 5.76 km to change the head of this table, and that is the figure worth rechecking when one opens. The eighth longest is Hafnerberg at 1.39 km, which is about where this record stops being about record holders and starts being about ordinary infrastructure.

The twelfth longest, Pratteln* at 0.9 km, sits close enough to its neighbours that which of them ranks higher depends on how each was measured. On 6 of the structures here the two carriageways are not the same length, which is why the archive records each direction separately rather than one figure per crossing.

The table on this page runs to 42 rows and records Tunnel/ Viaduct, Direction Sargans, Direction France and Notes for each of them, which is the shape the original compiler chose rather than one imposed here. Comparing two national lists says as much about how each country records its infrastructure as about the infrastructure itself.

Questions about Switzerland

What is the longest structure in Switzerland?

On the figures recorded here it is Kerenzer, at 5.76 km. It is the longest of the 35 entries recorded here, measured by bore length rather than span, cost or construction difficulty.

How many structures are listed for Switzerland?

35 entries with a recorded length appear on this page, from 0.14 km at the short end to 5.76 km at the top, with the middle of the set around 0.55 km. The table renders 91 rows in total; the rest carry a note or a blank where a length belongs.

What is a typical length among the structures listed for Switzerland?

The median entry measures 0.55 km and the middle half of the table runs from 0.26 km to 1.34 km. The headline figure of 5.76 km is the outlier, not the norm, which is why the median is the more useful number when comparing one national list against another.

How close is the top of the Switzerland table?

The longest stands 1.3 km clear of the next entry, and nothing else comes within ten per cent of it. A newly announced scheme therefore has to beat 5.76 km to displace Kerenzer.

How many structures does this route carry?

35 named tunnels and viaducts have a recorded length on this route, the longest being Kerenzer at 5.76 km, followed by Uetliberg at 4.46 km and Boezberg at 3.71 km; 16 of the 35 are under 500 metres.

Other pages in this section

Cite this page

Tunnels and Viaducts on the A3 in Switzerland, Basel to Sargans. The World's Longest Tunnels. https://www.lotsberg.net/data/sveits/A03CH.html

Tunnels and Viaducts on the A3 in Switzerland, Basel to Sargans