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Upgrading Brenner Railway Axis Munich-Verona Pipe Jacking Rescue Gallery: Contract Section H3 4 Münster-Wiesing Contract Section H8 Jenbach

Within the scope of the construction of the new Brenner railway axis between Munich and Verona 11 rescue galleries are being produced in the Münster-Wiesing area and 6 in the Jenbach area by the pipe jacking method for contract sections H3-4 and H8 on the Lower Inn Valley route. The 17 to 130 m long rescue galleries are driven in the groundwater with up to 3 bar groundwater pressure in the floor area and a surface overburden of up to 25 m. ln order to ensure that no delays ensue when boring the main tunnel owing to recovering the pipe driving machine while creating the rescue galleries, the pipe drives were carried out in the form of head bares with a machine especially developed for the purpose in the sealing blocks tangent to the main tunnel. To recover the pipe driving machine special folding arms on the cutting wheel were folded in the direction of the face and the pipe driving machine retrieved through the pipe column that had been created. The machine pipe is devised in such a way that the pipe driving machine is placed in the pipe prior to operations and remains in the ground as a complete driving pipe after recovery. On account of the work in groundwater a pipe driving machine with a fluid-supported face is employed. The driving pipes that were used with a wall thickness of 40 cm and pipe lengths between 1.40 and 2.50 m, 4 intermediate jacking stations and a large number of special pipes were made on the site in a field factory by the contractors and delivered to the various points of application by special transporters. Polypropylene fibres were added to the concrete for the jacking pipes in order to comply with the high demands placed by the client on the fire resistance of the rescue galleries. After concluding the pipe jacking work the heading is waterproofed to prevent the prevailing groundwater from entering in order to ensure that work can be continued in dry conditions. The pipe jacking drives for the 17 rescue galleries with an external diameter of 4.80 m in soft soils consisting of Inn gravel facies and alluvial fan facies with intrusions in the form of boulders and possible obstacles posed by tree trunks represent a particular challenge for executing the project.

 

 

  • Country: Austria
  • Region: Tyrol
  • Tunnel utilization: Traffic
  • Type of utilization: Escape and Rescue Gallery
  • Client: Brenner Eisenbahn GmbH (BEG)
  • Consulting Engineer: Planungsgemeinschaft Müller+Hereth/Spiekermann (section H3-4), Züblin (section H8)
  • Construction monitoring: Consortium ÖBA Bernard-BGS-Gebauer pA Bernard Ingenieure (H3-4, H8)
  • Contractor: Züblin Rohrvortrieb, Direktion lW Tunnelbau (contract sections H3-4, H8)
  • Main construction method: Trenchless
  • Type of excavation: Pipe jacking
  • No. of tubes: 1
  • Tunnel total length: 830 m
  • Cross-section: 4.00 m (internal diameter), 4.80 m (external diameter)
  • Contract Volume: approx.16.5 mill. Euro
  • Construction start/end: August 2007 till December 2009
  • Opening: 2012 (total route)