INSIGHT | CONCRETE TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS
mixing plant required for the project. Simem, established in 1963, is a second generation, privately owned enterprise that is headquartered in Minerbe, just south of Verona. It has subsidiaries in Germany, US, Canada and India, and is active globally. The North tunnel mouth is located at an elevation of ~ 1000m amsl and is a markedly Alpine terrain. Moreover, the tunnel mouth is located on the foot of an avalanche slope and even though the area is protected by massive avalanche retention systems it cannot be considered as totally safe. This is the main reason why the client decided to
have the concrete plant – including storage for three full production days – underground. The tunnels and caverns were especially built to house the concrete production plant. On the outside of the tunnel, a railway track was built
to supply the plant with sand, gravel and cement. Most of the material used for the concrete production comes from the excavation of this very tunnel. It is transported to the South tunnel portal and treated there in a gravel processing plant. Afterwards, the material is transported back to the North tunnel and used for the production of concrete and elements. In good Swiss tradition, the material will be transported back and forth by train only. After unloading of the train, the gravel and sand are
delivered by long conveyors through the inclined supply tunnel into the massive storage bins. The cement is unloaded and transported by a very special blow in system to sustain the long distance and the slope of the supply tunnel. The limited space, especially the lack of height, made
the design of this custom plant a real challenge. Next to the two Simem 3.33m3
twin-shaft mixers, which are
able to load two trucks at the same time, the custom plant includes: a fibre dosing unit for steel and plastic fibres; six cement silos of 4.6m-diameter, including a complicated dosing system made of 44No screw conveyors; 2400m3
storage for pea gravel with a separate truck loading system. Right next to the plant, also inside the tunnel, a
concrete recycling system including a filter press and pH correction was placed. The residual concrete can be washed out of the trucks, the Simem system then separates the water from the solid parts and the water can be reused during the batching process. Another special requirement was the electrical heating system. The complete storage (3360m3
Above:
4D simulation of installation sequencing
The JV for the Northern section awarded the
concrete works to the Zurich-based company Kibag, a leading Swiss company in the building materials and construction sector. It has a main area of business as the excavation of sand and gravel from Zurich Lake. In this project, they are responsible for concrete production, mix design, quality and distribution to the tunnel for the shotcrete and to the precast facility for the production of the concrete elements. Kibag awarded the Italian company Simem the design and installation subcontract for the unique batching and
26 | November 2025
storage for aggregates; and, 960m3
in total)
can be heated by electrical heating units, which are individually controlled to minimise energy consumption. During the tender phase, Simem’s drew upon its
experience with: ● mega projects (extension of the Panama Canal, Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam; The Channel Tunnel between the UK and France, the Brenner Base Tunnel between Austria and Italy, just to name a few), which helped to correctly estimate the challenges involved and measures necessary to build such complicated plant;
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