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Tunnel Niedernhausen

The Niedernhausen Tunnel is located in Planning Section 32.4 of Lot C on the new Cologne-Rhine/ Main line. It passes below the community boundaries of Niederseelbach, Engenhahn and Königshafen from NNW to SE. in addition to the main tunnel section, 2 emergency exits were headed, No. 1 as a 25 m long vertical shaft with a 90 m long branch tunnel to the main one and the roughly 130 m long emergency exit 2 as a 26° inclined shaft. The main tunnel was tackled from 2 sides in each case to the dip by mining means. The northern drive was undertaken as a wall bench heading over a length of 272 m. As the regional highway L 3272 as well as the extremely busy BAB A 3 motorway had to be passed under in this section, special measures in the form of pipe screens and face anchors in the form of grouted bored anchors were applied. Furthermore, the groundwater level was lowered at the BAB A 3 by means of vacuum wells. This section is located in the quaternary overlay and in the tertiary weathered zone with unfavourable ground properties and pronounced moisture present. Tunnelling was executed by excavators. The southern heading was undertaken up to approx. tunnel metre 1,829 as a crown/ bench/base drive. Interchanging beds of sandstones (Hermeskeil), Taunus quartzite and clay shales were encountered. At tunnel metre 1,620, there was a distinct transition from solid to loose ground with the beginning of the Idstein peripheral fault. Heading conditions changed markedly. However, thanks to the installation of a crown base and a stronger bolting system, it was still possible to continue with a full crown extraction. Up until tm 1,620, tunnelling was principally executed via blasting, subsequently, excavators were employed. Wet shotcrete was employed for securing the north and south drives with dry shotcrete used for the emergency exits. Initially, the ventilation of the south drive was undertaken from the actual south portal, subsequently via emergency exit 2, the inclined shaft. The underground water which accrued turned out to be a problem, at the south portal up to 25 l/s was registered. Extensive weathering was determined during tunnelling, the overburden incidentally amounts to up to 100 m. The inner shell is to be built to keep out water.

 

  • Country: Germany
  • Region: Hessen
  • Tunnel utilization: Traffic
  • Type of utilization: Main-line rail
  • Client: Deutsche Bahn AG and DB Projekt GmbH Köln-Rhein/Main
  • Consulting Engineer: lng.-Büro Gebauer, Ed. Züblin AG
  • Contractor: Ed. Züblin AG
  • Main construction method: Trenchless
  • Type of excavation: Drill-and-blast
  • No. of tubes: 1
  • Tunnel total length: 2,101 m by mining means; 664 m by cut-and-cover
  • Diameter: 150 m² by mining means
  • Contract Volume: ca. 144 mill. DM
  • Construction start/end: 1996 till 2000
  • Opening: 2002