Munich Petuelring Road Tunnel

Munich is numbered among the 3 biggest metropolitan cities in Germany- and is thus one of the busiest in terms of traffic. One of the focal points is the Mittlere Ring (ring road) which has to cope with up to 150,000 vehicles per day but through the construction of the Petuelring road tunnel the Situation has been ameliorated to a large extent. With an overall length of 2.66 km the construction scheme runs from the Lerchenauerstraße to the Munich-Nuremberg motorway junction. The 1,473 m long Petuelring Tunnel with a clear height of 4.80 m is divided by a closed central partition into a northern and southern tube with widths of 10.25 to 11.75 m. It possesses 2 lanes in each direction, which widen to form 3 lanes in the vicinity of the 5.5 hectare large Petuelpark. A 260 m long encasement made of steel and glass was set up in the east as part of the noise abatement measures whilst a 400 m long and 4 m high noise protection wall shields local residents in the western part of the scheme. The Petuel Tunnel is equipped with the latest state of the art in the form of extinguishing water lines, ventilation fans, road lighting as well as radio equipment and emergency call facilities. In order to ensure that traffic would keep flowing on the six lane Mittlere Ring during the construction phase, the tunnel was produced in 4 distinct stages. Construction phase 1 was given over to the preparatory operations for relocating the west least lanes towards the south. Apart from the roadwork itself, this also included complicated carriageway elevations so that the 3 lanes could run over the Nymphenburg-Biederstein Canal. The construction of the first tunnel section produced by the top-cover method started parallel to this. Construction phase 2 concentrated on creating the southern tunnel tube. The tunnel blocks in the intersecting zones were produced by relocating traffic towards the east and west. Construction phase 3 led the 3 lanes in the north over the completed south cover for the main tunnel thus facilitating the completion of the northern tunnel frame. The final construction phase saw traffic running over a single lane so that the encasement could be constructed above the south ramp lanes in the east. After completion of the drilled piling work and the 2 halves of the cover, work started on excavating the tunnel itself. The required water drainage measures were undertaken via an open drainage system. On account of the embankments and geometrical protrusions, it was extremely difficult to produce the plane. The associated difficulties continued during the work involving the tunnel floors and were further exacerbated as a result of the enormous amount of reinforcing. Among the further technical highlights, crossing under the 2 tubes of Underground Line 2 at an angle deserves to be mentioned. There was only about 1 m of overburden between the excavation floor of the tunnel and the roofs of the Underground railway tubes so that the 10 m deep pit had to be excavated in sections to avoid impermissible strains.

Country: Germany
Region: Bavaria
Tunnel utilization: Traffic
Type of utilization: Road tunnel
Client: Regional Capital of Munich, Department for Foundation Engineering
Consulting Engineer: Regional Capital of Munich, Department for Foundation Engineering, Köhler und Seitz
Contractor: Max Bögl Bauunternehmung GmbH & Co. KG, Ed.Züblin AG
Main construction method: Open
Type of excavation: Cut-and-cover
No. of tubes: 1
Tunnel total length: Contract length 2.66 km including 2 x 1,473 m two-lane tunnels and 266 m side tunnel produced by the drilled piling-top-cover method 250,000 m³ soil excavation, 120,000 m³ of concrete, 5,000 drilled piles
Contract Volume: € 250 million
Construction start/end: September 1997 to July 2002