The Gotthard-Base Tunnel will be the worlds longest traffic tunnel, with a length of 57 km. The tunnel is part of the New Alpine Transverse in Switzerland. The dual purpose of this project is to provide a highspeed link for passengers between Germany in the North of Europe and Italy in the South of Europe and to transfer freight traffic from roads to rail. It makes an essential step to actively protect the Alps and to get an important contribution to preserve the environment in general. At the present time the construction works are proceeding ahead at both portals and at the three intermediate accesses. Over 33% of the total length of tunnels and the galleries are excavated. Some difficult parts of the tunnel have been completed successfully, some others with over 2,000 m of overburden and poor rock mass properties have to be excavated next.