If you are planning to travel to the Tessin by car in the coming weeks be warned the Gotthard Tunnel is undergoing renovation works and will be completely closed on the following dates and times! The highway between Göschenen and Airolo will close to all traffic between 21.00 and 5.00 on the nights of 10. to 14., 17. to 21.. 24 to 28 of September as well as 1. to 3. of October. If you need to go south during these times you will be directed to go over the Gotthard pass or you can take the A13 highway through the San Bernadino tunnel.
If you think that there is a lot of construction work going on everywhere I’m afraid you will be none too pleased to hear that the city has agreed to a further 87 renovation projects of our streets and roads to take place in the next 4 years; bringing the total number of projects to 215 and costing roughly 225 million francs. If you need to get up at 7 a.m. rest assured a jackhammer will probably be your alarm clock in the near future!
A while back the Swiss turned down the opportunity to be the first country to offer a minimum wage to ALL of its citizens. The village of Rheinau has now voted this in. The village consists of 1300 and 700 adults will be taking part in the project, entitling them to CHF 2500.- a month regardless of whether they are working or not. If someone is already working and earning more, they will have to give the money back, so they will see no change, but unemployed or people earning less will have their wages rounded up. The project will cost between 2 to 3 million francs and will be financed through crowdfunding. It will be interesting to see whether this system will be successful or not.
