Bush tunnel

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Bush tunnel
Bush tunnel
West portal of the old and new bush tunnels
Official name Bush tunnel
use Railway tunnel
traffic connection Railway line Liège – Aachen
place Aachen border of Germany and Belgium
length 691 m (old tunnel)
711 m (new tunnel)dep1
Number of tubes 2
cross-section 60 m²
Largest coverage 45 m
construction
Client Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (old tunnel)
Deutsche Bahn AG (new tunnel)
building-costs € 50.5 million
start of building 1838 (old tunnel)
June 24, 2005 (new tunnel)
completion 1843 (old tunnel)
2007 (new tunnel)
planner Client : DB Cologne,
DB ProjektBau Cologne
business
operator DB network
release October 15, 1843 (old tunnel)
November 25, 2007 (new tunnel)
location
Buschtunnel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Red pog.svg
Red pog.svg
Coordinates
West portal 50 ° 44 '25 "  N , 6 ° 3' 18"  E
East portal 50 ° 44 '37 "  N , 6 ° 3' 48"  E

The Aachen Buschtunnel is the name given to two parallel railway tunnels under the Aachen forest near the German-Belgian border on the Liège – Aachen line. There is an "old" and a "new" bush tunnel. The tunnels run through sandy soil and are only used by passenger trains ( Thalys , ICE International and the regional trains of the euregioAIXpress Aachen - Spa-Géronstère ). Freight trains travel from Aachen West through the Gemmenich tunnel to Montzen .

course

Location of the bush tunnel in the German-Belgian border region

The two tubes cross under, roughly in the middle, the B 264 (Lütticher Straße) . In the vicinity of the west portal, a row of houses is passed under the customs house settlement.

Old bush tunnel

East portal of the old bush tunnel before the renovation

The old tunnel was built between 1838 and 1843, making it the oldest railway tunnel still in use in Germany. It is 691 m long with a maximum overburden of 45 m. When it opened, the Buschtunnel was joined by another, approximately 150-meter-long bush tunnel .

The Buschtunnel had to be renovated just 10 years after it was opened. The tunnel had to be drained due to the lack of insulation. For this purpose, a longitudinal tunnel was dug above the masonry , from which crossed tunnels started, with the help of which the construction work was carried out. After the work was completed, the resulting tunnels were filled in. Presumably in the course of this work, the small bush tunnel was removed, as the conversion into a cut was possible due to the low cover .

In the 1930s, the tunnel was renovated again. It was from within shotcrete attached. Over time, smoke and exhaust gases from the locomotives, frost and mountain water caused damage to this shotcrete layer. Before the renovation, the tunnel was therefore only allowed to be driven at 40 km / h.

Refurbishment of the old bush tunnel

After the construction of the new Buschtunnel, the old Buschtunnel was temporarily taken out of service. The renovation of the old tube began on June 8, 2009 . On October 23, 2011 (the completion was originally planned for the timetable change in December 2010), the renovated tunnel was put back into operation. In the existing, brick tunnel tube, a new inner shell made of concrete u. a. an escape route , lighting and fire protection measures were also installed. In the formerly two-track tube, there is only one track that has been lowered to enlarge the tunnel cross-section. The federal government provided 13.6 million euros for the renovation of the old tube. This measure was completed on October 17, 2011. Thus, together with the new Buschtunnel, a single-track tube is available in each direction in order to handle the expected additional traffic on the Cologne-Brussels-Paris axis and planned to London. On October 23, 2011, the track of the rehabilitated tube was reintegrated into the line to Liège.

New bush tunnel

Between 2004 and 2007, a new, 711 m long, single-track and slightly curved tunnel tube was built at a distance of 25 to 45 m south of the old tunnel. The new construction and the renovation of the old tunnel were intended to increase the speed of travel on the route from Aachen Central Station to the new Belgian high-speed line HSL 3 ( Cologne-Paris axis ).

The 3.2 km long section between the Ronheider ramp and the German-Belgian border was expanded to a speed of 160 instead of the previous maximum of 120 km / h. The crossing structure west of the tunnel, on which the track change (left / right-hand traffic) was previously carried out, was removed. It is driven from or to Aachen Hbf in left-hand traffic (see also multi-track ). A slab track was installed in the tunnel ; the superelevation is up to 70 mm.

West portal during the renovation

Preparatory work for the new building began in September 2004. It was also necessary to dispose of munitions in the tunnel area, which was exposed to heavy bombardment during World War II . The southern pre-cut was then widened to a width of 34 m. Due to the high embankments, bored piles up to approx. 20 m deep were erected, sometimes in several layers.

At the start of construction on June 24, 2005, it was expected to go into operation for the timetable change in December 2006. The tunnel was opened on June 24, 2005 by the tunnel godmother , then Federal Minister of Health Ulla Schmidt , who has her constituency in Aachen . The tunnel breakthrough took place on May 27, 2006. The inner shell was concreted between October 2006 and the end of June 2007. The new building was inaugurated on November 23, 2007 and put into operation on November 25, 2007 according to schedule. The tube crosses under the Aachen forest in the sand of Hauset , whereby the Aachen sand below is cut. This consists of fine-grain quartz sands with up to 50 cm thick layers of sandstone , occasionally with a thickness of up to 2.5 m. The water table is about 1.5 m below the bottom of the new tube.

As part of the European railway project PBKA , there was an investment volume for the new tunnel construction, the expansion of the track systems and accompanying measures (e.g. noise protection , control and safety technology) amounting to 50.5 million euros . 4.4 million euros are co-financed by the European Union . The new tunnel was built on behalf of DB Netz AG by a consortium of Hochtief Construction AG , Hartung Bau GmbH & Co KG and the Eichholz Group .

On the night of October 25-26, 2008, a rescue exercise with 300 helpers took place in the bush tunnel, including 30 firefighters from Kelmis, Belgium .

Web links

Commons : Bush tunnel  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bernhard Poll (ed.): History of Aachen in data , City Archives Aachen , Aachen 1960, pp. 145–149.
  2. ↑ a b c Martin Muncke: New Buschtunnel . In: Underground Construction Germany 2005 . Bauverlag, Gütersloh 2005, ISBN 3-9803390-3-3 , p. 106
  3. ^ Alfred Haack, Conrad Boley, Jörg Zimbelmann: Tunnel construction and underground cavity construction - Introduction - History and meaning . In: Handbook Geotechnics . Vieweg + Teubner Verlag . P. 781. 2012. ISBN 978-3-8348-0372-6 . doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-8348-8272-1_13 . Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  4. ^ A b c Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp , Schweers + Wall, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-921679-91-5 , pp. 160–161.
  5. ↑ Marlon Gego: The new old bush tunnel is being built . In: Aachener Nachrichten , Aachener Zeitungsverlag , June 8, 2009. Accessed October 25, 2013. 
  6. ↑ Ulrich Simons: The bush tunnel is getting a new inner shell . In: Buschtunnel Aachen-Ronheide - The ultimate tunnel vision . Ulrich Simons. September 30, 2011. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  7. ↑ Business announcements 39/2011 of Deutsche Bahn AG , number 733
  8. ↑ Oliver Schumacher: Fact sheet - New tube Buschtunnel (PDF; 42.62 kB) In: The company DB - press information . Deutsche Bahn AG . November 23, 2007. Archived from the original on November 12, 2011. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  9. ↑ a b Thomas Kreft: At 160 km / h, the train leans into the steep curve . In: Aachener Nachrichten , Aachener Zeitungsverlag , June 26, 2007. Retrieved October 25, 2013. 
  10. ↑ Announcement of the second bush tunnel . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 8–9 / 2005, p. 358.
  11. ↑ Oliver Schumacher: New tube of the Buschtunnel in Aachen is completed . In: The company DB - press releases . Deutsche Bahn AG . November 23, 2007. Archived from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  12. ↑ Großmann: International high-speed line Paris – Brussels – Cologne is making progress, newstix. November 26, 2007. Retrieved October 25, 2013. 
  13. ↑ 300 helpers practice in the bush tunnel . In: DB Welt , December 2008 edition, p. 23