Skip navigation

Wandersmann North Tunnel

Within the framework of the new Cologne-Rhine/Main line, the Wandersmann North Tunnel links Wiesbaden up with the main route. The 2 single-track tubes pass beneath the A 3 motorway with an overburden of only some 20 m. The side sections of the 2 tubes are being created with rectangular cross-sections by means of cut-and-cover, the central sections with the aid of a shield tunnelling machine with part-supported face in a 24-h decadic operation. The shield weighs a total of some 460 t and is advanced by 25 cylinders (total installed output: 70,000 kN). The water permeable outer segmental layer (d = 20 cm, B 45) is merely intended as a construction aid until the pressure watertight reinforced concrete inner shell (d = 45 cm, watertight WU concrete B 25/B 35 - sulphur resistant) is installed- and is not applied in the final state. The subsurface comprises tertiary Rupel clay, with underlying Oligocene special facies. The Rupel clay is split up into an upper bed with a dark-olive colour and semi-solid to solid consistency, which is characterised by small vertical fissures and slippage fissures dipping into the face as well as a largely structureless lower bed, greenish-grey in colour with slightly less consistency. Groundwater is present both in the fissured dark-olive Rupel clay as well as in the form of artesian water in the special facies. The greenish-grey Rupel clay banks up the water. When the starting wall was opened, the transposed soils revealed such a disaggregated and small-sized texture that the starting zone had to be penetrated protected by ground freezing with liquid nitrogen. During the heading of the first tube, the face stability was affected in parts as a result of the close-standing fissuring and the high consistency of the Rupel clay as the ground was broken up into unexpectedly small pieces as a result of pressure from the shield cutter. This new recognition regarding the behaviour of the soil was made use before the second tube was tackled by modifying the shield machine.

 

  • Country: Germany
  • Region: Hessen
  • Tunnel utilization: Traffic
  • Type of utilization: Main-line rail
  • Client: Deutsche Bahn AG and DB Projekt GmbH Köln-Rhein/Main
  • Contractor: Dyckerhoff & Widmann AG
  • Main construction method: Trenchless
  • Type of excavation: Shield machine (SM)
  • Lining: Reinforced concrete segments
  • No. of tubes: 2
  • Tunnel total length: 2,235 m (1752 m mining means, 483 m by cut-and-cover)
  • Diameter: 9, 70 m (inner), 11,50 m (shield diameter)
  • Cross-section: 104 m² (excavation), 74 m² (in operation)
  • Contract Volume: ca. 120 mill. DM (roughwork)
  • Construction start/end: mid 1998 to mid 2001
  • Opening: 2002