Eppenberg Tunnel: Soft Ground Drive and Inner Lining

On the Berne-Olten-Zurich railway line in Switzerland, the stretch between Gretzenbach and Wöschnau, which is the sole remaining twin-track section, forms a bottleneck. This situation is to be rectified by late 2020 by widening the line between Olten and Aarau to provide four tracks. This upgrade will increase the route’s availability and capacity as well as it will attain more flexibility. We reported on the 3.1 km long Eppenberg Tunnel in issue 8/2017 of tunnel. This article thus merely provides a brief summary of the overall project and concentrates on the findings obtained from the construction sections already completed as well as the current status.

The railway line between Olten and Aarau is located on the main route between the cities of Berne and Zurich. On account of high demand for both passenger and goods traffic, the SBB is upgrading this link. The route is being widened from two to four tracks in order to increase capacity. As the existing route cannot be upgraded within the communities located along it owing to a lack of space, a twin-track rail tunnel is required through the Eppenberg. Once the contract was awarded, construction work started in 2014. Apart from the main tunnel, which is connected to the surface infrastructure by...

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