Heiligenberg Tunnel (Palatinate)
| Heiligenberg tunnel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| use | Railway tunnel | |||
| traffic connection | Mannheim – Saarbrücken railway , Palatinate Ludwig Railway | |||
| place | Hochspeyer , Kaiserslautern | |||
| length | 1347 m | |||
| Number of tubes | 1 | |||
| construction | ||||
| Client | Palatine Ludwig Railway Company | |||
| start of building | 1845 | |||
| business | ||||
| operator | Deutsche Bahn | |||
| release | December 2, 1848 | |||
| location | ||||
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| Coordinates | ||||
| East portal | 49 ° 26 ′ 17 " N , 7 ° 52 ′ 5" E | |||
| West portal | 49 ° 25 ′ 54 ″ N , 7 ° 51 ′ 8 ″ E | |||
Map with all coordinates: The Heiligenberg Tunnel is the longest of a total of twelve tunnels on the Mannheim – Saarbrücken railway line that emerged from the Palatinate Ludwigsbahn and at the same time the longest in the Palatinate . The tunnel crosses the main Palatinate watershed .
location
The tunnel is located in the north-western Palatinate Forest . It is mainly located in the city of Kaiserslautern ; the smaller, eastern part belongs to Hochspeyer . The tunnel crosses under the eponymous Heiligenberg in a straight cut .
history
On December 21, 1837, the Bavarian King Ludwig I approved the construction of a main line in an east-west direction from the Rheinschanze to Bexbach . Numerous hills and mountains had to be overcome between Hochspeyer and Kaiserslautern. The construction of the line caused problems, because between these two places the watershed between Lauter and Hochspeyerbach had to be overcome. This made it necessary to build a 1347 meter long tunnel. Rail traffic from Ludwigshafen to Neustadt had already started in 1847. The line between Kaiserslautern and Homburg was opened on July 2, 1848; it followed in two stages from Frankenstein to Homburg with the section from Frankenstein to Kaiserslautern including the Heiligenberg tunnel on December 2, 1848.
Like the entire line, the tunnel was initially only single-track , but was expanded to include two tracks from the start. In honor of the chief engineer and first director of the Palatinate Ludwig Railway , Paul Camille Denis , under whose direction the tunnel was also built, the railway company had a dedication inscribed above the west portal of the tunnel: DEDICATED TO THE BUILDER PAUL DENIS .
Since the main line from Mannheim to Saarbrücken has always been of great importance for long-distance traffic, it was gradually electrified from 1960. For this, the Heiligenberg tunnel had to be widened. Work was carried out with ongoing operations by closing one track on each side of the tunnel. This delayed the introduction of electrical operations, which finally began on March 12, 1964.
Between November 2001 and May 2002 the clearance profile was expanded as part of the upgrading of the route for TGV trains; this was achieved by installing a fixed track according to the Getrac A3 system, which made it possible to lower the superstructure by 20 cm due to the smaller standard structure. The execution was carried out by the Kirchner company on behalf of the DB AG regional office south-west, Stuttgart, and had a construction volume of 3.1 million euros.
At the end of June 1988, a landslide caused a railway accident at the tunnel .
literature
- Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways (= publications of the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science in Speyer. Vol. 53). New edition, with a new, expanded part of the picture by Wolfgang Löckel. Pro Message, Ludwigshafen 2005, ISBN 3-934845-26-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways. 2005, p. 53.
- ↑ Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways. 2005, p. 85.
- ↑ Werner Schreiner : Paul Camille von Denis - European transport pioneer and builder of the Palatinate railways . Ludwigshafen 2010. ISBN 978-3-934845-49-7 , p. 84.
- ^ Fritz Engbarth: From the Ludwig Railway to the Integral Timetable. 160 years of rail traffic in the Palatinate. Zweckverband SPNV Rheinland-Pfalz Süd, Kaiserslautern 2007, p. 23 f.
- ↑ Homepage of the company Kircher Holding ( Memento of November 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The course book route 670 - operation - operational features: (accident in the Heiligenberg tunnel). Retrieved August 21, 2018 .