The Albvorland Tunnel is a 8,176 m long twin-tube railway tunnel on the Wendlingen–Ulm high-speed railway in Baden-Württemberg. It underpasses a part of the town Kirchheim-Lindorf and Bundesautobahn 8 at the junction of Kirchheim-East in the industrial area of Dettingen unter Teck[1] The tunnel is situated between kilometer 26.077 and 34.253 on the railway line. It is on the boundary of Wendlingen am Neckar, Kirchheim unter Teck, Lindorf and Dettingen unter Teck. It also underpasses a high pressure gas line and a NATO fuel line.

Albvorland Tunnel
Overview
LineWendlingen–Ulm high-speed railway
Coordinates48°39′43″N 9°22′22″E / 48.6620°N 9.3727°E / 48.6620; 9.3727 (West Portal Albvorland Tunnel) (west portal)
48°37′48″N 9°28′11″E / 48.6299°N 9.4696°E / 48.6299; 9.4696 (Ostportal Albvorlandtunnel) (east portal)
Operation
Work begun2016
ConstructedOctober 2019
Opened19 December 2022
Technical
Length8.176 km
No. of tracks2 (short freight connection at west portal)
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8+12 in) standard gauge
Electrified15 kV 16.7 Hz AC overhead line
Operating speed250 km/h
Width9.6 m

Construction

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The tunnel traverses under and through layers of black jura. The biggest superposition is 65 m,[2] the smallest superposition is 9.5 m. High water pressure was expected. The tunnel is part of section 2.1a/b of the line.

The costs of €270 million were expected in a newspaper in April 2014, confirmed by the government.[3] In April 2009, the rough costs were calculated at €16.5 million per kilometre. The total cost of section 2.1 will be €798.7 million (at 2010 prices).

The call for competition for the tunnel's construction had 8 bidders. The order was valued at €380 million and was awarded on 18. December 2015 to Swiss company, Implenia.[4]

In a planning paper from Deutsche Bahn (March 2012), planning approval was expected for 2014, with the start of work expected in 2014 and end of work in 2021.[5] In Spring 2014, the contractor delayed the plan approval to beginning of 2015 and the start to 2016.

Tunneling on the south tunnel began on November 9, 2017 with TBM Wanda and on the north tunnel in January 2018 with TBM Sibylle. The 10.82 m wide, 137m long, 2300 t Herrenknecht earth pressure balance TBMs completed tunnelling in October 29, 2019, after advancing an average of 15 m a day.[6][7][8]

The Wendlingen-Ulm line was opened for passenger service on December 19, 2022. Alongside these parallel drives, some conventional construction with blasting and excavators was used at the western portal.[9]

Tunnel

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The twin tube tunnel has an additional short 520m freight line connection at its western portal, with a 170 m single track tunnel. A link to the Stuttgart-Tübingen line is also situated close to the western portal. There are cross-passages approximately every 475 m.[8][10][11]

The tunnel uses slab track and has LED illuminated handrails throughout its length. The track is equipped with ETCS level 2 signalling as with the rest of the line, as well as hot axlebox and seized brake detectors fitted in the tunnels.[12] The two tunnels are connected by 4.6 m wide cross-passages.[13]

 
Albvorlandtunnel Wendlingen Preparation of the building site July 2016

References

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  1. ^ 24 Stunden am Tag wird gebaut. Archived 2013-02-12 at archive.today In: Der Teckbote, 14. Mai 2009.
  2. ^ Hany Azer, B. Engel: Stuttgart 21 und NBS Wendlingen–Ulm. In: Tunnel, Heft 7/2009, ISSN 0722-6241, S. 12–24 (PDF, 290 kB).
  3. ^ Michael Deufel (2014-12-04), "Graben im Akkord", Stuttgarter Nachrichten (in German), no. 86, p. 20
  4. ^ Bahn vergibt Auftrag für den Bau des Albvorlandtunnels Archived 2015-12-21 at archive.today. Presseinformation vom 18. Dezember 2015.
  5. ^ Thomas Wüpper: Bahn rechnet intern mit weiterer Verspätung. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung, Jg. 68, Nr. 93, 21./22. April 2012, S. 21 (ähnliche Fassung online).
  6. ^ Smith, Claire (2019-10-31). "Implenia celebrates breakthrough on southern Albvorland Tunnel bore". Ground Engineering (GE). Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  7. ^ "VMT GmbH GB | Albvorland Tunnel – Connecting Alb to Stuttgart". Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  8. ^ a b "Milestone reached at major Albvorland Tunnel project". implenia.com. 2019-10-29. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  9. ^ "Westportal Albvorlandtunnel Wendlingen". Bahnprojekt-Stuttgart-Ulm. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  10. ^ "NBS - Vortrieb und Aushub". bahnprojekt-stuttgart-ulm.de. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  11. ^ itmelona. "Albvorlandtunnel". Amomont. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  12. ^ Vögele. "Paving a slab track in the Albvorland Tunnel | Magazine | Vögele". www.wirtgen-group.com. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  13. ^ Bačić 2022-09-28T11:00:00, Toma. "Germany: Wendlingen - Ulm poised to open as Stuttgart21 costs rise again". Railway Gazette International. Retrieved 2023-07-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

48°37′47″N 9°28′04″E / 48.6298496°N 9.4677883°E / 48.6298496; 9.4677883