Germany's railway company, Deutsche Bahn AG, has awarded a contract worth almost 122 million euro for the construction of two railway tunnels to Alpine, FCC's Austrian subsidiary.
Baumleite Tunnel
It will take approximately 3 years to build the 1,317 meter Baumleite Tunnel south of Erfurt between the communities of Theuern, Truckental and Grümpen. A 40-meter escape shaft will serve as an emergency exit. The contract value amounts to nearly 44 million euros.
The tunnel is part of the new 107-km line between Ebensfeld and Erfurt comprising the upgraded Nuremberg-Berlin line.
Beton und Monierbau GmbH (BeMo), a fully-owned subsidiary of ALPINE Bau GmbH, will be responsible for the tunnel construction.
New Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel
Constructed in 1877, the double-track Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel needs to be adapted to meet new safety requirements. A joint venture comprised of ALPINE Untertagebau GmbH, ALPINE Bau Deutschland AG and FCC Construcción will build a new single-track tunnel for this purpose.
The tunnel is located on railroad line 3100 between Koblenz and Perl. The tunnel will be 4,200 meters long. The new tunnel will be driven with a single-shield tunnel boring machine with a diameter of 10.12 metres. The old tunnel tube will be rehabilitated and connected to the new tube by means of eight connecting structures having a length of 15 meters each. Construction of a second tunnel tube will keep the line open to traffic in the future.
The contract value is approximately 80 million euros. Construction is scheduled to be completed in November 2011.
ALPINE's experience in tunnel construction
ALPINE has extensive experience in tunnel construction, not just in Austria (e.g. the Pfänder, Katschberg and Lainzer tunnels) but also worldwide. Alpine has been part of the Gotthard Base Tunnel construction project in Switzerland since 2001. ALPINE is currently building part of the new subway network in New Delhi and a water supply tunnel for the Tapovan power plant, which is located south of the Himalayas, in India. It is also building tunnels for power plants in Bulgaria and Turkey. ALPINE is currently expanding the subway network in Singapore and, upon completion of the Yellow River Diversion Project, is building an underground water supply tunnel in China.
