Wayside shrine tunnel
| Wayside shrine tunnel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| use | Rail transport | |||
| traffic connection | Saarbrücken turquoise mill | |||
| place | Friedrichsthal | |||
| length | 336.8 | |||
| Number of tubes | 1 | |||
| cross-section | 9.34 | |||
| construction | ||||
| building-costs | 1 billion French francs | |||
| start of building | May 1953 | |||
| completion | July 1955 | |||
| business | ||||
| operator | DB network | |||
| location | ||||
|
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| Coordinates | ||||
| southern portal (Friedrichsthal) | 49 ° 19 '52 " N , 7 ° 5' 29" E | |||
| northern portal (wayside shrine) | 49 ° 20 ′ 3 " N , 7 ° 5 ′ 30" E | |||
Map with all coordinates: The wayside shrine tunnel is a 336.8 m long tunnel in Friedrichsthal in the Saarland . The railway tunnel, built between 1953 and 1955, is a listed building.
history
In 1844 Prussia decided to connect Saarbrücken and the Saarland coal district to the Palatinate Ludwig Railway in order to facilitate the transport of coal from Saarland. The pits around Neunkirchen, St. Ingbert and Saarbrücken should have a direct rail connection. In order to be able to guarantee this, the route had to be led across the Sulzbachtal , which was seen as a difficult route through the Saarkohlenwald . Extensive studies by the Prussian Mining Authority confirmed this. In particular, the ridge on which the Friedrichsthal district of Bildstock lies was considered problematic. It was decided to dig a tunnel here. The preparatory work was completed in mid-1847. Work on the line began in 1849. A total of 43 bridges and culverts had to be built on the short stretch.
At the end of 1849, work began on the tunnel under the wayside shrine. On average, 34 men, including miners, worked on the construction of the 481-meter-long tunnel under the direction of Obersteiger Ludwig Raiffeisen. The work was carried out from both sides and carried out with hammer and chisel, occasionally also with a fire , in which the stone was heated strongly and then quenched with cold water. In 1852 the tunnel was completed and the line went into operation on November 15, 1852. The new tunnel was at the highest point of the route. The route rose sharply from Saarbrücken, and then fell just as sharply to Neunkirchen.
The strong coal mining in the region soon led to serious problems on the railway line. Mountain damage forced frequent repairs. Due to the subsidence of the pits, the dams grew rapidly in order to keep the track bed level. Again and again there were considerations to relocate the railway line and also to tear down the wayside shrine tunnel and to cut a line through the wayside shrine. But for military tactical reasons, this idea was not implemented, because the tunnel would make the route unusable for a long time if it were blown up. From 1946 onwards, the damage to the mine got worse. Calculations showed that by 1975 the stretch between Friedrichsthal and Landsweiler-Reden would have had to be raised by around two to three meters. In addition, large coal deposits were discovered under the wayside shrine tunnel, which could not have been extracted if the old route had been raised and left. Slitting the tunnel would have left a roughly 60-meter-deep incision that would have divided the village of wayside shrine. Saar mines and the railway management therefore decided to build a new tunnel.
The plans for the tunnel were not easy: the tunnel height had to be large enough to keep traffic going even if it was deformed by mountain damage. Albert Caquot from Paris devised a new tunneling system specifically for the expansion, and with the collaboration of the engineering office Considere et Cie. worked out. The plans envisaged using 0.8 m wide concrete blocks in order to achieve elasticity in the tunnel wall. The concrete rings are set around 0.4 m apart. 281 support rings were required, each consisting of 178 conical vaulted stones. Around 50,000 stones were needed, which were produced in a specially set up factory at the north entrance.
The new wayside shrine tunnel was built around 150 meters west of the old tunnel. It is 336.8 m long (according to the sign on the north portal 340 m) and has a diameter of 9.34 m with two tracks. While the old tunnel ran straight through the mountain, the new one follows a curve with a 500-meter radius. At the beginning of May 1953, work began on the northern cut, and the first tunnel was driven forward from October . The actual tunnel excavation amounted to around 33,000 m³, and another 450,000 m³ of earth had to be moved in front of the tunnel entrances. On average, 275 people worked on the construction site. The project cost more than 1 billion francs .
On July 3, 1955, the first train passed through the new tunnel. The old tunnel was filled in and the sandstone entrance portals filled in. In the years that followed, measurements were repeatedly made on the tunnel to check the statics. The measurements showed that the tunnel tube hardly subsided.
literature
- Werner Klär: The railroad makes it possible . In: Christian Jung, Werner Klär (ed.): Friedrichsthal. A journey through time . City of Friedrichsthal, 1999, pp. 65–77
- The new wayside shrine tunnel . In: Schacht und Heim 1 , Werkzeitung der Saarbergwerke AG, 1955, issue 2
- Paul Guthörl: The new railway tunnel at Bildstock . In: Saarbrücker Bergmannskalender 1955, p. 17ff
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sub-monument list of the Saarbrücken regional association ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , List of monuments of the Saarland, Landesdenkmalamt Saar, p. 4 (PDF)
- ↑ a b Werner Klär (1999), pp. 73, 76
- ↑ https://www.eisenbahn-tunnelportale.de/lb/inhalt/tunnelportale/3511-bildstock-neu.html
