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18-457: The A2 motorway from Chiasso to Basel passes through the tunnel and carries around 55,000 vehicles a day. There are tentative plans to construct a bypass to replace the section of the motorway that leads through Lucerne, which includes the Sonnenberg and Reussport tunnels. Based on a federal law from 1963, Switzerland aims to provide nuclear fallout shelters for the entire population of

36-737: A long political debate, it was decided to abandon the road tunnel's secondary civil defense function and instead convert the central seven story cavern into a shelter with a more modest capacity of 2,000. Since 2008 people can visit the cavern on guided tours and to get an insight into the bunker world of the Cold War. Sources 47°02′19″N 8°17′39″E  /  47.038653°N 8.294287°E  / 47.038653; 8.294287  ( Sonnenberg Tunnel south portal ) A2 motorway (Switzerland) [REDACTED] A8 [REDACTED] A13 The A2 (the Gotthard Motorway )

54-574: A popular initiative for a green economy (launched by the Green Party of Switzerland ), a popular initiative concerning the retirement system and a referendum on the federal law on intelligence . Both of the popular initiatives were rejected, whilst the federal intelligence law was approved. The 27 November referendum had only one question, a federal popular initiative "for the programmed phase-out of nuclear energy" (against nuclear power plants ). The initiative dated from 2012, about one year after

72-437: A population of 20,000 in close confines were not thoroughly explored, and testing the installation was difficult because it required closing the motorway and rerouting the usual traffic. The only large-scale test, a five-day exercise in 1987 to practice converting the road tunnels into usable shelters, revealed many problems: among other things, it took 24 hours to fully close all four blast doors, and it proved impossible to set up

90-554: A referendum on the issue had to be held. Publicity included a truck filled with eight million coins emptying the money in front of the Federal Palace in Bern . Even though the initiative's official text submitted to the vote did not specify any level, the campaigners proposed 2,500 Swiss francs for adults (about US$ 1,650 at PPP in 2014) and 625 francs for children per month. Three referendums were held on 25 September 2016;

108-643: A spill-over from the German debate. Two basic income organizations were formed, "Initiative Grundeinkommen" and BIEN-Switzerland, and one ATTAC -group also became advocates. These organizations had some success, including some articles in national newspapers. The petition calling for a referendum on basic income as a constitutional right was started in April 2012. After six months 42,000 people had signed, and by April 2013 there were approximately 70,000 signatures. By October 2013 more than 130,000 citizens had signed, meaning

126-749: Is a motorway in Switzerland . It forms Switzerland's main north–south axis from Basel to Chiasso , meandering with a slight drift toward the east. It lies on the Gotthard axis and crosses the Alps . Opened in 1955 under the name "Road Lucerne-south", A2 is one of the busiest motorways in Switzerland. The A2 motorway leaves Basel heading south toward Olten , Sursee , Luzern , Stans , Altdorf , Erstfeld , Göschenen , Airolo , Biasca , Bellinzona , Lugano and reaches Chiasso . It intersects with

144-561: The A1 , A8 , A13 and A14 motorways. The St. Gotthard Tunnel lies at the heart of the motorway and makes up its culminating point. With a maximum elevation of 1,175 metres (3,855 ft) at the tunnel's highest point, the A2 motorway has the lowest maximum elevation of any direct north–south road through the Alps. Traffic jams stretching for kilometres on end are frequently found on both entrances of

162-461: The 20,000 beds within reasonable time. Afterwards, the shelter's capacity was reassessed at 10,000-17,000. Doubts about the tunnel's viability as a shelter remained. After the end of the Cold War , the high maintenance costs seemed unjustified for an installation that was clearly geared towards use during wartime and couldn't be readied within hours for short-term use after disasters. In 2006, after

180-525: The country. The construction of a new tunnel near an urban centre was seen as an opportunity to provide shelter space for a large number of people at the same time. The installations that allowed the tunnel to be converted into a fallout shelter cost around $ 32.5 million, of which approximately $ 5 million were borne by the municipality of Lucerne. The shelter consisted of the two motorway tunnels (one per direction of travel), each capable of holding 10,000 people in 64 person subdivisions. A seven-story cavern between

198-431: The federal government and staffed by federal officials where most asylum seekers would be accommodated. The discussion about basic income in Switzerland began in the 1980s, initially amongst academics such as sociologists who saw the potential to alleviate poverty better than the current system. But there was no major public debate in the 1980s nor the 1990s. In the early 2000s, however, things were slowly changing due to

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216-519: The first tunnel are finished, the Swiss government plans to operate one single lane in each tunnel (northbound traffic in the newly constructed tunnel, southbound traffic in the renovated one) in order to maintain the current tunnel overall capacity, in compliance with the Swiss constitutional norm that forbids a further growth of the traffic capacity across the Alps. The reconstruction would have lasted for several years in any variant – one variant would push

234-474: The recommendations of the government. The law establishes that all embryos conceived in a test tube can be examined using all the genetic techniques available, and then selected. In this way, embryos with Down syndrome (trisomy 21) can be destroyed before implantation. The new law provided free legal advice and representation for all asylum seekers, and speeding-up procedures for granting or refusing asylum. It also established new federal reception centers run by

252-490: The rejection of all three popular initiatives, but recommended approval of the amendments to the federal law on road transit in the Alpine region. The vote results followed these recommendations, with higher voter turnout than usual. Five propositions were on the ballot for the 5 June 2016 referendum: All three popular initiatives were rejected, whilst the two legislative amendments were approved. The voters thus again followed

270-399: The traffic over the mountain pass, another proposed to load the vehicles onto trains with a new terminal, a third would close the tunnel for several months every year over time range of a decade. All of these have their drawbacks and the usage of the second tunnel was chosen as the best option to allow for the reconstruction. Further usage of both tunnels was subject to a popular referendum that

288-447: The tunnel, but more frequently on the northern flank. The difficulty with driving through the St. Gotthard tunnel is that it is a motorway tunnel with one lane per direction, but without a central reservation. So far, The Swiss government has decided to upgrade the second tunnel into a full road tunnel in order to allow for the necessary reconstruction of the first road tunnel. Once the works on

306-465: The tunnels contained shelter infrastructure including a command post, an emergency hospital, a radio studio, a telephone centre, prison cells and ventilation machines. The shelter was designed to withstand the blast from a 1 megaton nuclear explosion 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) away. The blast doors at the tunnel portals are 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) thick and weigh 350 tonnes (340 long tons; 390 short tons). The logistical problems of maintaining

324-913: Was held in February 2016 , where it was approved. The actual upgrade mining of the second road tunnel would last from 2020 to 2027 at a cost of 2.7 billion francs for the whole project including the following reconstruction of the first tunnel. Near Lucerne , this motorway passes through the Sonnenberg Tunnel , which until recently was the world's largest nuclear blast shelter . Listed are exits heading south as of Basel Symbols: ↗ = exit (↘ = exit only; → = only when heading for Chiasso ; ← = only when heading for Basel ); ⇆ = main interchange; S = service area 2016 Swiss referendums Thirteen national referendums were held in Switzerland during 2016. On 28 February 2016, referendums were held on four initiatives: The government recommended

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