Order, build, operate

1988
Keeping track
Keeping track

Lined up in an office in Faido, the federal files for AlpTransit Gotthard, the company building the tunnel, might not be as long as the Gotthard Base Tunnel, but they are testament to the complex interplay of numerous parties. The NRLA has an efficient project management system in place. (2011, Alptransit Gotthard Ltd)

June 1989 sees the publication of a large-scale study on the objectives and models of an «NRLA project organisation» by the Institute for Construction Engineering and Management at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. The study analyses the best way to organise the construction of a major infrastructure project, and comes up with the «client-contractor-operator model» that separates infrastructure from operations. Accordingly AlpTransit Lötschberg Ltd and AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd, two companies that are legally separate from the BLS and SBB, are commissioned by the Confederation to build the NRLA, before handing it over for operation to their parent companies.

« Functions must be clearly separated in order to minimise the burden of business on Parliament and the Federal Council. »

Elektrowatt Ingenieurunternehmung Ltd, Zurich, NRLA project organisation, objectives, models, assessment, p. 13-14, june 1989

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