Hengsberg tunnel

Hengsberg tunnel
South portal of the Hengsberg tunnel
use	Railway tunnel
traffic connection	Koralm Railway
place	North portal: Weitendorf , Wildon community South portal: Hengsberg municipality
length	1695 m
vehicles per day	according to the 2011 timetable: Mon – Fri: 23 / Sat: 6 S-Bahn trains
Number of tubes	1
cross-section	two-pronged
construction
Client	ÖBB Infrastruktur Bau AG, Vienna
building-costs	€ 74 million (planned)
start of building	November 2007
completion	planned for 2020 (total route)
business
operator	currently GKB ( Graz-Köflacher Bahn and bus service )
release	December 2, 2010
location
Coordinates
North portal	46 ° 52 ′ 45 "  N , 15 ° 28 ′ 8"  E
South portal	46 ° 52 ′ 1 ″  N , 15 ° 27 ′ 47 ″  E

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

The Hengsberg tunnel in Styria forms the core of the Werndorf - Wettmannstätten section of the Koralmbahn Graz - Klagenfurt railway that is currently under construction .

geography

The railway tunnel has a total length of 1695 m, runs in a north-south direction under a foothill of the Buchkogel and will be operated on two tracks in the final stage.

History from shell construction to partial commissioning

• The planned construction period for the tunnel was from November 2007 to May 2010 with an order value of EUR 74 million.
• The tunnel was hit on June 27, 2008.
• The tunnel breakthrough took place on April 29, 2009.
• Austrian Tunneling Method (1035 m were in explosive and propellant excavator according to the principles of the New NATM ), 450 m in open construction and 210 m in top-down construction created.
• In mid-July 2010, the last gap in the Hengsberg tunnel was closed, making the Werndorf - Wettmannstätten line passable (single-track, non-electric).
• On September 29, 2010 the section of the Koralm Railway Werndorf - Hengsberg - Wettmannstätten was used for the first time with a passenger train. The special train of the Steiermärkische Landesbahnen (STLB) consisted of a diesel locomotive and a passenger wagon.In the course of the journey, in addition to a stop in the tunnel, the Hengsberg and Wettmannstätten stops were also stopped and the facilities of this new line were inspected by the participants of this special trip.
• On October 26th (national holiday) a total of 350 hikers from the communities of Hengsberg, Weitendorf and Wildon used the unique opportunity to cross the Hengsberg tunnel on foot.
• The next premiere took place on November 2nd, when a Stadler GTW entered the Hengsberg tunnel for the first time as part of an evaluation drive. On its “maiden voyage” on the Koralmbahn, the GTW drove from Graz through the Hengsberg tunnel (with a planned “emergency stop including evacuation exercise”) to the Leibenfeld construction site junction near Deutschlandsberg .
• On December 3rd, one of the most spectacular construction sections on the Styrian side of the Koralm Railway was officially opened.

The 14 km long section from Werndorf to Wettmannstätten was built in just under four years. (The last opening of a railway line for passenger traffic in Styria was 79 years ago, on June 15, 1931 the line Feldbach - Bad Gleichenberg was opened.)

• On December 4th, a disaster exercise took place in the Hengsberg tunnel, the exercise assumption was: In the tunnel, a passenger train derailed after a collision with a flock of escaping sheep. Eight volunteer fire brigades with 16 vehicles and 93 emergency services as well as the police took part in the exercise and “rescued” 37 passengers.
• Partial commissioning: Since the timetable change on December 12, 2010, the Graz - Wies-Eibiswald has now been routed via the Südbahn and Koralmbahn instead of via Lieboch as before . Diesel- powered GKB S-Bahn trains run through the tunnel in single-track operation.

In the summer of 2011, all freight traffic from Graz main train station (to Wettmannstätten and beyond) was carried over the Südbahn and Koralmbahn for six weeks , as the track connection from the Köflacherbahnhof was interrupted due to construction work.

On May 2, 2016, the track construction work for the second track in the area from Weitendorf to Wettmannstätten began. The track construction work was completed on October 14, 2018. A total of 18 kilometers of track were laid between Weitendorf and Wettmannstätten, up to the new West Styria train station.

photos

• North portal & insight with the telephoto lens
• Tunnel breakthrough
• Photo of the construction work - Pages 4 & 5 (PDF file; 694 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Construction information Koralmbahn Weitendorf - Wettmannstätten  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Press corner - April 29, 2009 - tunnel breakthrough Hengsberg tunnel ( memento of the original from July 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Hengsberg Tunnel - Wayss & Freytag
4. ↑ http://www.styria-mobile.at/home/oebb/bauberichte/koralmbahn-aktuell-29-09-10/
5. ↑ http://www.bfvlb-steiermark.at/Berichte-2010/Einsaetze/perfekte-katastrophenuebung-im-hengsbergtunnel.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ News on rail and road. Kleine Zeitung , April 26, 2010, archived from the original on October 21, 2014 . 
7. ^ GKB turntable , p. 9, Graz, December 2011
8. ↑ Neighboring information  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of ÖBB Infra from April 2016.  
9. ↑ Another milestone in the construction of the Koralm Railway on ORF-Steiermark from October 14, 2018, accessed on October 14, 2018