Construction of the Augustaburg Tunnel on the new Nuremberg-Berlin High-Speed Railway Line, Augustaburg Tunnel, Germany

Construction of the Augustaburg Tunnel on the new Nuremberg-Berlin High-Speed Railway Line

On September 11, 2002 construction began on the 3.61 km long section of the German Unity Transport Project "Track No.8.1" west of Erfurt.. Among other things, this section includes the 300m long Geratal bridge and the 1.4 km long Augustaburg tunnel. The capital spending volume for the tunnel construction is EUR 40 million.

Augustaburg-Tunnel

The 1.4 km long tunnel is a reinforced concrete tube with separate internal and external leafs. The tunnel cross-section is designed for two-track utilization on ballast less track.
The tunnel runs from south to north and, beginning at the north side, is built using excavator driving. Advance driving is done separately for the roof section, lower bench and floor. To stabilize the external shotcrete shell inside the tunnel approximately 45,000 m of DYWIDAG type R32N hollow bar Soil Nailing System were used.

Slope stabilization at the northern entrance

A 55,000m3 cut was excavated at the northern entrance. The excavation was stabilized as a slope on the right-hand side and as an abrupt topographical change on the opposite side by means of an anchored retaining wall.
For this purpose 432 pc. SUSPA ® Compact Anchors for rock and soil with steel tendons made of 0.6" strands (140 mm2) grade 1570/1770 with lengths varying from 12 to 28m were used. The anchors were installed in up to 6 layers. This corresponds to a total weight of the strand of approx. 67t.