Gstaad’s historic rail viaduct to be restored

‘Tis the week for ambitious engineering projects in Gstaad (see above). This time it’s a consortium known as GIG, or Groupement d’ingénieurs Gstaad, that has won its bid to restore rather than replace the historic MOB rail viaduct that passes above Gstaad. If regular readers are feeling that this story has something of a déjà vu quality to it, well that's because it does (see: Train viaduct to be restored not rebuilt, November 27 2006). The GIG consortium, essentially front-end packaging for yet another rendition of mission impossible engineering from Walter Egger’s Egger Ingenieure AG, Gstaad (see: Video: Glacier 3000, an engineering mission impossible), was also the winner of a first round of bidding last year, but one of the losing teams entered an official objection regarding the selection process and the bids had to be reopened.

Not one to be deterred from a challenge, GIG re-submitted a modified bid and won again. What is notable about the GIG proposal is that despite the higher cost to restore the bridge (estimated at SFr 2.6 million), MOB selected GIG’s vision as the one that best maintains the natural and historic feel of Saanenland. The landmark bridge, which has not been modified since 1904, will see a good 100-years of extended lifespan, with special emphasis being placed on the reduction of noise from the trains. This will be achieved by placing the rails on a new concrete surface, which itself will be laid on sound-absorbing plates. While GIG’s original plan called for a suspension of train service for a month, the chance to submit a second bid enabled Egger and co. to come up with an ambitious plan to “slide over” the existing bridge during restoration and have the trains run on a provisional structure for three months. Once the restoration work has been completed, the old bridge will be slid back into place, resulting in just six days of suspended service between Gstaad and Schönried. Cantonal funds are expected to support at least part of the cost.