Stuttgart 21: Breakthrough at the Airport Tunnel – All Tunnels Completed
Deutsche Bahn has successfully driven all tunnels of the Stuttgart 21 project. In total, the tunnellers have dug around 56 kilometres of tunnel. With the last tunnel breakthrough on 14 September 2023 in the new airport tunnel, a milestone of the Stuttgart 21 project was reached.
The tunnel construction work for the airport tunnel (photo) was completed on 14 September 2023. This means that almost ten years after the start of construction, the excavation of all Stuttgart 21 tunnels has been completed
Credit/Quelle: DB AG/Arnim Kilgus
The airport tunnel is part of the planning approval section 1.3a, which is being built by a consortium of the companies Züblin and Max Bögl. The approximately 2.2 km long tunnel consists of two tubes. It will connect the airport and the trade fair centre to the long-distance and regional railway network via a new underground station. The completion of the tunnel excavation was celebrated by high-ranking representatives of Deutsche Bahn, federal, state and local politics, the European Commission, Stuttgart Airport and the construction industry with other guests of honour.
Eight Tunnels in Ten Years
As part of the Stuttgart 21 project, eight tunnels have been dug within the last ten years, most of which consist of two tubes and cover a total of 56 256 m of tunnel:
Tunnel Bad Cannstatt
Tunnel Feuerbach
Tunnel Airport
Filder Tunnel
Tunnel Obertürkheim
S-Bahn tunnel between Mittnachtstraße station and Hauptbahnhof S-Bahn station
Rosenstein S-Bahn tunnel
Tunnel Untertürkheimer Kurve
The completion of tunnel driving for the Stuttgart 21 project was celebrated with many guests of honour (from left): Carsten Poralla (Managing Director Non-Aviation of Flughafen Stuttgart GmbH), Bernhard Bauer (Chairman of the Stuttgart–Ulm Rail Project Association), Winfried Hermann (Minister of Transport Baden-Württemberg), Dr. Arina Freitag (Tunnel patron and Chief Financial Officer TenneT Holding BV), Dr. Volker Wissing (Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport), Berthold Huber (Member of the Executive Board, Infrastructure, Deutsche Bahn AG), Dr Frank Nopper (Lord Mayor of the State Capital Stuttgart), Herald Ruijerts (Director Investment, Innovative & Sustainable Transport European Commission), Jörg Rösler, Member of the Executive Board, Strabag SE
Credit/Quelle: DB AG/Reiner Pfisterer
All of these tunnels have been completely driven. In addition, the rails are already in place in several tunnels: More than 60 km of solid track have been installed and in some cases reach as far as the future main station.
The symbolic start of construction for the Stuttgart 21 tunnels was on 4 December 2013 in the Obertürkheim Tunnel. The tunnels were excavated with TBMs and conventional construction methods, i.e. with excavators, blasting and cutting tools. At times, more than one kilometre of tunnel was driven per month.
Berthold Huber, Director of Infrastructure at Deutsche Bahn: “56 km of tunnels, built in the middle of a big city, under the trade fair, in the middle of an airport site, under the Neckar river, under the television tower – the challenges were numerous. Now the tunnelling is complete. The miners can be proud of themselves. Their work underground is essential for the mobility turnaround, from which millions of people and freight transport benefit.”
