In March 2026, work began on the renovation of the Schürholden tunnel, which leads to the Elbisgraben landfill site in the canton of Basel-Landschaft. This 630-metre-long single-lane tunnel is being renovated and dismantled in sections during night-time closures to ensure sufficient clearance for the approximately 300 lorries that use it every day. Extensive civil engineering works are also being carried out at both access points.

Inside the tunnel, extensive milling work has been carried out at the tunnel face, down to a depth of 1.90 m. This is to lay of new cable connections and construct the new drainage system.

Due to the exceptionally hard rock, with a hardness exceeding 120 MPa, Egli’s specialised rock cutters were deployed. The new Bullhead KRC 140 was ideally suited to this demanding task and excavated the trench up to 1.90 m deep, precisely and efficiently.

The Kemroc Bullhead rock cutters from the KRC range are fitted with two cutting heads arranged at an angle to one another. Thanks to the high density of the carbide chisels, no bridging occurs, enabling a precisely narrow trench to be cut directly and without lateral swivelling.

The cutting performance in very hard rock was extremely satisfactory: in just seven hours, approximately 30 linear metres of trench were excavated to a depth of 1.90 m. This corresponds to a throughput of around 50 to 60 m³ per hour – a result that even impressed the contractor.

Another challenge was reprofiling the tunnel roof within an extremely confined space. For this work, the Kemroc KR 120 rock cutter was used; it is specially equipped with a KRM 70 hydraulic slewing gear and rotation mechanism and operated on a Liebherr R 930 T tunnel excavator. The tunnel roof was thus reprofiled with precision and efficiency.

Thank you very much to WALO Bertschinger AG and everyone involved in the project for the trust they have placed in us and for this pleasant and successful collaboration.