Success Once Again: Forum on Injection Technology 2024 in Cologne
With more than 230 participants, the fifth Forum on Injection Technology took place in Cologne's Maternushaus at the beginning of November 2024. This exceeded the high number of visitors from 2022. There are three good reasons for the popularity of this event: an extensive two-day lecture programme with selected expert presentations, a comprehensive trade exhibition with all the important companies in the industry and the excellent opportunity for networking – in a professional setting as well as in a relaxed atmosphere at the highly successful festive evening, which was held this time in the traditional Cologne pub and restaurant Em Kölsche Boor.
16 presentations on various aspects of sealing and rehabilitation of structures and subsoil were on the two-day lecture programme of the Injection Technology Forum 2024
Credit/Quelle: Manico TV
Over two days, 16 specialist presentations once again offered visitors a wide range of topics covering important and current issues in injection technology. A total of 25 companies – manufacturers, planners and contractors – as well as technical associations took part in the exhibition. And the festive evening in the brewery was well attended until the early hours of the morning. There was positive feedback for this overall package from both visitors and sponsors of the industry get-together, which was launched ten years ago and has been a firm fixture in the event calendar for professionals ever since.
STUVA Managing Director Prof. Dr.-Ing. Roland Leucker opened the 5th Forum on Injection Technology in the Maternushaus in Cologne
Credit/Quelle: Manico TV
With more than 230 participants, the strong attendance of the Forum could be increased once again in 2024
Credit/Quelle: Manico TV
25 companies and sponsors participated in the comprehensive trade exhibition in the foyer of the Maternushaus
Credit/Quelle: Manico TV
As in previous years, the Forum on Injection Technology was jointly organised by the partners STUVA (Research Association for Tunnels and Underground Transportation Facilities), IBE-Ingenieure and Bauverlag. The carefully selected presentations focussed on the injection specialist areas of ground improvement and sealing as well as improving and sealing structures with practice-oriented project examples. In addition, overarching special topics were also dealt with in a separate thematic block. These included the practical implementation of injection theories in construction contracts, the causation and insurability of damage in injection technology and the topic of “More women, nationalities and religions in the construction industry – living a culture of values as a way out of the shortage of skilled labour”, which is relevant for the entire construction sector. Dipl.-Ing. Jörg de Hesselle (IBE-Ingenieure) and Dr.-Ing. Christian Thienert (STUVA) moderated and chaired the discussion; the fifth Injection Forum was opened by STUVA Managing Director Dr.-Ing. Roland Leucker.
Excerpts from the Lecture Programme
Two major tunnelling projects were dealt with in the section on ground sealing. For the Brenner Base Tunnel, the focus was on injections and other measures to permanently seal the structure in the Hochstegen section, which is particularly challenging from a geological and hydrogeological perspective. High water pressures made injection measures necessary here, as a relevant lowering of the mountain water level was not permitted.
A report was given on field tests in the Gloggnitz section of the Semmering Base Tunnel to forecast the water inflow and monitor the success of the injection. In addition, results from an extensive grouting test field at a major construction project in Munich were presented in another lecture. Using injection bodies that were placed at depths of up to 20 metres and later exposed, it was possible to gain insights into the hydraulic and mechanical properties of fine and medium sand injected with acrylate gel.
The thematic block on ground improvement on the second day of the event also offered intriguing presentations for tunnelling. The first presentation was dedicated to face support during sprayed concrete tunnelling in coarse-grained unconsolidated rock. Here, the cohesion of the ground can be improved in advance by injecting foam. The particular advantages of polymer-based, foaming injection materials are: their short reaction time, which prevents uncontrolled flow of the material, high early strength after just a few minutes and the increase in volume during the reaction of the foam, which saves time and material.
During tunnel construction in the station areas for the extension of the U2 underground line in Vienna, extensive settlement compensation by means of injection measures is necessary to minimise and even out the settlement of the built-up surface. The complex subsoil conditions are particularly challenging. The second lecture reported on the planning and execution of these compensation injections.
The final lecture focussed on the 2nd Munich main line and the precise drilling technology for the elevation injections in the vicinity of the Marienhof station. Here, too, the injection technology ensures that the dense inner-city development and the existing underground railway tubes are secured above the new platform tubes to be constructed.
Save the date: 6th Forum on Injection Technology, November 4–5, 2026
The sixth Forum on Injection Technology will be held on November 4 and 5, 2026. The German-language website www.forum-injektionstechnik.de provides details on the event; in addition, you can register in the newsletter mailing list for the 2026 forum.
The proceedings of the “Forum Injektionstechnik 2024” with full-length versions of the lectures in German has been published as Vol. 60 of the STUVA series “Forschung + Praxis”.
The informal finale to the first day of the Forum on Injection Technology was the excellent festive evening in Cologne's Em Kölsche Boor pub and restaurant
Credit/Quelle: Manico TV
