The Deutsche Bahn AG awarded the contract for the Merklingen-Hohenstadt route section of the new Wendlingen-Ulm rail route on the Alb Plateau to a JV...
The Granitztal Valley chain of tunnels represents part of the 130 km long Koralmbahn Railway between Graz and Klagenfurt. It is located in the 7.8 km long section between St. Andrä and Aich. The ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG has commissioned the Implenia (general management) and Hochtief Infrastruktur JV to execute construction. In early February 2015 the ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG also commissioned the production of the St. Kanzian chain of tunnels between Schreckendorf and Peratschitzen. The main elements are the 620 m long tunnel at Srejach and the 665 m long tunnel in Untersammelsdorf.
The TBM named “Kätchchen” used to drive the Boßler Tunnel began its work in mid-April, 2015. The machine built by Herrenknecht first tackled the eastern bore, which will one day accommodate the track running from Ulm to Stuttgart. It advanced from the start-up section at the Aichelberg portal up the Alb towards the access tunnel already produced at Umpfental near Gruibingen.
Hochtief Solutions Middle East Qatar W.L.L., together with Al Sraiya Strabag for Roads and Infrastructure W.L.L. and Petroserv Limited, signed a contract for construction of the central section of the new sewerage network IDRIS (Inner Doha Resewerage Implementation Strategy) under the capital of Qatar. The client is the Public Works Authority (ASHGHAL).
When shotcrete is used in tunnelling, a stable and robust shotcrete system is essential for safe and economical construction. In order to ensure a robust system, the reactive components of the concrete (cement, superplasticizer, accelerator) have to be coordinated. The article describes the Accelerator System Test (German: Beschleuniger-Systemtest BEST), which can be used to coordinate these components. On the Stuttgart–Ulm rail project, the BEST was used successfully to remedy unsatisfactory shotcrete performance.
The swing bridge at Sluiskil in the Netherlands' province of Zeeland crosses the canal from Gent to Terneuzen. It is a bottleneck for road traffic: The bridge opens on average 23 times a day for a total of up to five hours in order to enable ships to pass. This led to long waiting times for traffic south of the Westerschelde Tunnel, which opened in 2003. After four years of construction the twin-bore Sluiskil Tunnel opened in May 2015, which now enables an uninterrupted flow of traffic.
If fire breaks out in a tunnel, the heat has scarcely any possibility of escape, and the temperature increases to more than 1000 °C in a short time. The heat can lead to explosive spalling from the concrete and weaken the stability of the structure. This can be hindered by the addition of polypropylene (PP) fibres. But what actually happens inside the concrete? Engineers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have found a way to measure this.
Once again more than 1500 experts from the field of underground construction will get together for the 2015 STUVA Conference, the international forum...
Dr.-Ing. Roland Leucker celebrated his 50th birthday in April 2015. Since 2008 he has been the CEO of the STUVA Inc. also taking over responsibility...
Journalist Roland Herr discussed the market, margins and tunnellers with Dr. Klaus Rieker, Managing Director of the tunnelling division, Wayss & Freytag Ingenieurbau AG in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The father of three in his early fifties has been engaged in tunnelling and foundation engineering since 1989 and looks back on international experience in underground construction.
