Status of Linac4 construction at CERN

Linac4 is a 160 MeV normal-conducting H¯ linear accelerator which is being built at CERN in the frame of a program for increasing the luminosity of the LHC. The project started in 2008 and delivery of beam to the CERN accelerator chain is foreseen from early 2015. The new linac will be housed in an underground tunnel close to the present Linac2; a surface building will house RF and other infrastructure. The civil engineering work started in October 2008 will be soon completed. Installation of the infrastructure will take place in 2011, and from 2012 will be installed the main machine elements. The ion source is presently operational on a test stand, where it will be followed in 2011 by a 3 MeV RFQ under construction in the CERN workshops. Prototypes of the three different types of accelerating structures have been tested; construction of the 22 accelerating cavities has started, supported by a network of agreements with external laboratories and institutions. Commissioning will take place in stages, starting from January 2013. Starting in March 2014 is foreseen a sixmonth reliability run, in preparation for Linac4 role as the new source of particles for the CERN complex.