Limburg tunnel

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The Lahntalbrücke on the high-speed line Cologne – Rhine / Main. The south portal of the Limburg tunnel can be seen in the background

The Limburg Tunnel (also: Tunnel Limburg , Limburger Tunnel ) is a 2395 m long tunnel on the high-speed line Cologne – Rhine / Main . It bears the name of the district town of Limburg an der Lahn , on whose territory it runs.

It drives through alternating layers of rock and passes under the federal motorway 3 and the premises of Tetra Pak GmbH & Co KG. Its construction was considered to be one of the most difficult of the new line.

The tunnel accommodates two slab tracks that can be driven on as planned at 300 km / h.

course

The north portal is on Ottostraße in Limburg (route kilometer 106.8 ( 50 ° 24 ′ 10.5 ″  N , 8 ° 3 ′ 22.8 ″  E )), the south portal at km 109.1 ( 50 ° 23 ′ 32.6 "  N , 8 ° 5 '5"  E ).

In the north, the tunnel crosses under the Elbboden industrial area near the federal motorway 3 , which it then crosses over a length of around 400 m. In the further course the federal highway 49 and the motorway junction Limburg Nord will be crossed. It emerges from the Lahn slope south of the Dietkircher Höhe industrial area . The southern tunnel portal is immediately followed by the Lahntalbrücke and then Limburg Süd station .

In the tunnel, the route towards Frankfurt runs in a continuous curve in a south-westerly direction, with a curve radius of 3350 m - the lowest curve radius on the route. The tunnel slopes down to the south portal with up to 28 per thousand . In the area of ​​the south portal the slope of the tunnel increases again. The overburden is between about 10 and 20 meters and reaches its highest value with 27 m each in the area of ​​the Offheimer bridge and the motorway crossing.

Two emergency exits lead to the surface via stair wells 21 and 31 m high and eight meters in diameter. The northern exit was created within the north-western ramp of the cross of A 3 and federal highway 54 (at 50 ° 24 ′ 1.6 ″  N , 8 ° 4 ′ 11.5 ″  E ). The southern output leads in a commercial area, on the edge of the intersection Dietkircher way / High Road ( 50 ° 23 '50.5 "  N , 8 ° 4' 39.4"  O ) in the range 108.394 kilometers to the surface.

  • Northern emergency exit

  • South emergency exit

geology

The soil conditions in the Limburger Graben are considered extraordinarily complicated. Loose rock formations often alternate with solid volcanic rock.

The tunnel passes under various Devonian solid rock as well as tertiary and quaternary loose rock . There is a pronounced fracture tectonics ; the traversed shales have due to severe tectonic stress and weathering to a strong softening or decomposition.

In the pre-cut in front of the north portal was the former Limburg lacquer factory , whose successor cleared the area in 1996. The partially contaminated ground (around 15,000 cubic meters until the beginning of 1998) had to be replaced. More than 200 buried barrels also had to be salvaged and disposed of.

history

planning

The alignment of the tunnel emerged from lengthy discussions between the railway and the municipalities northeast of the industrial areas of Limburg. It was ultimately chosen so that as few residential areas as possible had to be driven under. In the course of the planning, the route was moved several times. It turned out to be difficult to go under the premises of the Tetra Pak company , whose production facilities ( rotary machines ) could not have tolerated subsidence.

At the end of 1994 and the end of 1995 the planned length of the structure was 2375 m. At the end of 1997, the building was planned with the length of 2395 m, which was realized later.

The original route was to pass under a machine hall with rotary printing machines used for printing packaging. Since subsidence in the tenths of a millimeter area of ​​the tunnel eight meters deep would have had a direct impact on production operations, a route shifted by 25 m was chosen. Further stabilization was necessary due to the susceptibility to subsidence. The completed route crosses under two halls and the company's high-bay warehouse. In the northern section, at the request of the City of Limburg, the tunnel route was moved to the north, under the motorway. This resulted in a long dragging cut with the highway.

Delays in planning and permits repeatedly led to interruptions and hindrances to construction activities.

The order value was around 160 million German marks (approx. 82 million euros ).

Commemorative medal for the breakthrough on July 1, 1999 (front)
Commemorative medal for the breakthrough on July 1, 1999 (reverse)

construction

The structure is one of eleven tunnels that are located in the 45 km long section B of the construction section in the middle of the new line. It was built between 1997 and 2001.

The working group Tunnel Limburg / Eichheide , which consisted of the companies Bilfinger Berger and Hochtief , began to set up in Limburg at the beginning of 1997. The construction site was initially set up by summer 1997. In order to be able to meet the completion date after delays, the decision was made at the end of 1997 to set up an intermediate attack, which was driven in both directions.

In November 1997, tunneling began on the south portal. The tunnel was christened on December 4, 1997 as the Barbara tunnel . The Hessian Labor Minister Barbara Stolterfoht took over the tunnel sponsorship . A symbolic demolition was carried out. At this point in time, the dome jacking had already run around 100 m. Around 350 guests attended the baptism.

In March 1998, tunneling began from the north. In mid-1998 around 600 meters had been driven from the north and around 250 meters from the south. The intermediate attack began in September 1998.

After 16 months of driving, the dome in the southern part of the tunnel was broken through on March 3, 1999. The 1250 m long section reached from the south portal to the intermediate attack.

The 2395 m long tube was driven by mining over a length of 2280 meters. Mining sections of 1200 m (in the north) and 1080 m are connected in the portal areas with parts of 60 (north) and 45 m (south) created using the open construction method. The approx. 10 m wide intermediate approach was also constructed using the cut-and-cover method, roughly in the middle of the tunnel.

Depending on the geological conditions, the excavation cross-section was between 151 and 158 m². The tunnel, which was largely built using the elm tunnel due to poor subsoil conditions , was excavated using tunnel excavators with subsequent shotcrete protection . Depending on the strength of the rock, the excavation cross-section was divided into horizontal (dome, bench , bottom ) or vertical sections (elm and core).

A particular challenge was the undercutting of a Tetra Pak plant over a length of around 200 m (according to another source around 450 m). In addition to the machines in the production facilities, the company's high-bay warehouse was also not allowed to be impaired. Various measures were taken to counteract the risk of subsidence that was not allowed to exceed 15 mm when undercutting with only a few meters of cover. For this purpose u. a. Elevation injections were injected below the building from two working shafts (10 and 15 meters deep) located at the edge of the tunnel to compensate for subsidence. For this purpose, steel sleeve pipes with valves at a distance of 33 cm were installed in the up to 45 m long bores . In addition, two storage halls were separated from their socket foundations and placed under them with four hydraulic presses each with computer-controlled units. Parts of two production halls were temporarily cleared during the construction phase. In the event of a standstill in the warehouse, a contractual penalty of 100,000 D-Marks per day was provided, in the event of a total failure a one-off payment of 250 million D-Marks.

In the area of ​​the federal highway 49, which is passed under the northern federal highway 3 bridge directly next to the abutments and central pillar, lifting injections were also carried out to secure the highway bridge. For this purpose, an excavation pit was created in the median of the B 49, from which a pipe umbrella was erected in addition to the injections.

Of the eleven tunnels in section B of the new line, the Limburg tunnel was the most advanced at the end of 1998.

In order to pass under the southern abutment of the Offheimer Weg bridge, a steel construction was built in the area of ​​the central bearing and the bridge was detached from its bearings using hydraulic presses in order to be able to compensate for construction-related subsidence.

In the vicinity of the north portal, when the old Limburg paint factory was demolished, contaminated soil was discovered, which made extensive restoration necessary. In order to be able to meet the planned completion date, an intermediate attack was set up, from which the tunnel was driven in both directions.

After the drive was completed, an inner shell made of waterproof reinforced concrete elements, each ten meters long, was installed. Depending on the structural requirements, the shell or vault thickness is between 35 and 60 cm. One vault and one sole were built per day as planned, with a concrete consumption of between 220 and 300 m³ each.

The breakthrough occurred on July 1, 1999. In the afternoon of the same day, the public was invited to an open tunnel day .

A total of 350,000 cubic meters of material was excavated. Among other things, 85,000 m³ of shotcrete , 81,400 m³ of in-situ concrete for the inner lining and 30,000 m³ of filler concrete for the bottom were used.

Installation

At a charity campaign in which donors could leave a message on the tunnel wall with a felt pen, around 5000 DM from several hundred people were raised in November 2000.

Before the new line went into operation, a large-scale rescue exercise with around 200 rescue workers and 30 "passengers" took place in the tunnel on May 25, 2002. It was one of five major damage exercises for the approval of the new line.

business

The rails in the tunnel should be changed in the second half of 2014.

On August 20, 2015, an ICE with around 500 people remained in the tunnel for two and a half hours due to personal injury .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b DBProjekt GmbH Cologne – Rhein / Main, project management (publisher): New Cologne – Rhein / Main line: construction section middle, Lot B: Selters – Brechen , brochure (20 pages), Frankfurt am Main, January 1999, p. 7
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Alfred Eggert: Limburger Tunnel: a near-surface tunnel under critical development . In: DB ProjektBau GmbH, Frankfurt (ed.): New Cologne – Rhine / Main line. Bridges and tunnels . without ISBN. Pp. 80-85
  3. ↑ Construction of the Lahntalbrücke in the course of the new DB line Cologne – Rhine / Main ( Memento from 23 September 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: Tiefbau , 2001, issue 12, pp. 810–814
  4. ^ A b Walter Wittke, Bernd Pierau: The tunnels Niedernhausen and Limburg . In: ICE new line Cologne – Rhine / Main . Hestra-Verlag, Darmstadt 2002, ISBN 3-7771-0303-9 , pp. 58-61
  5. ↑ a b c d e A. Eggert: DB-NBS - Limburg tunnel . In: Tiefbau-Berufsgenossenschaft (Ed.): Occupational health and safety in tunnel construction , Munich, 1999; Proceedings of the 1998 Tunneling Conference, November 2nd to 4th, 1998 at the Professional Association Academy for Occupational Safety and Administration (BGA) in Hennef / Sieg, pp. 22-25
  6. ↑ Responsible handling of contaminated sites . In: On the subject , ZDB -ID 2115698-0 , issue February 1998, pp. 9-11.
  7. ^ Deutsche Bahn AG, Network Division, NBS Cologne – Rhein / Main (Ed.): New Cologne – Rhein / Main line. Hessen area. Plan approval sections Elz – Limburg (PFA 31.1–3) . Four-page brochure dated December 1994.
  8. ^ Deutsche Bahn AG, network division, project management for the Cologne – Rhein / Main line (publisher): route map for the new Cologne-Rhein / Main line . Map from November 1995, Frankfurt 1995
  9. ↑ DBProjekt GmbH Cologne – Rhein / Main (Ed.): Route map: New Cologne-Rhein / Main line , Frankfurt am Main, November 1997.
  10. ↑ NBS current: Tunnel baptism on the day of St. Barbara . In: On the subject , ZDB -ID 2115698-0 , issue 6/1997, p. 10 f.
  11. ↑ a b c DB Project Cologne-Rhein / Main ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). On the website of the University of Weimar, accessed on September 7, 2007
  12. ↑ a b c d double baptism; Punch; Bridge displacement; Drainage tunnel; Long-distance train station . In: On the subject , ZDB -ID 2115698-0 , issue 2/99, April 1999, pp. 8-9.
  13. ↑ On the history of the city of Diez ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: mabuse-dr.de , accessed on September 7, 2007.
  14. ↑ a b afforestation; Breakthrough in the Limburg tunnel; Baptism of the Siegauen Tunnel; Bridges completed; Architectural competition . In: DBProjekt Köln-Rhein / Main (Ed.): On the subject , issue 4/1999, Frankfurt am Main, August 1999, p. 8 f.
  15. ↑ NBS current: Tunnel baptism on the day of St. Barbara . In: On the subject , ZDB -ID 2115698-0 , issue 6/1997, p. 7
  16. ↑ funding agreement; Limburg tunnel . In: On the subject , ZDB -ID 2115698-0 , issue July 1998, p. 8
  17. ↑ a b On the subject , ZDB -ID 2115698-0 , special edition 2002, p. 22.
  18. ↑ Without author: The project for the new Cologne – Rhine / Main line . In: Eisenbahn JOURNAL: Tempo 300 - The new Cologne – Frankfurt line . In: Eisenbahn Journal , special edition 3/2002, ISBN 3-89610-095-5 , pp. 34–63
  19. ^ Deutsche Bahn AG (Ed.): Seven fairy tale stories about the new DB line Cologne – Rhine / Main . Brochure, 36 pages, Berlin, no year (approx. 2002), p. 25
  20. ↑ R. Sternath: DB new line Cologne-Rhein / Main: Experience in the implementation of functional tenders in tunnel construction . In: Tiefbau-Berufsgenossenschaft (Ed.): Occupational health and safety in tunnel construction , Munich, 1999; Proceedings of the 1998 Tunneling Conference, November 2nd to 4th, 1998 at the Professional Association Academy for Occupational Safety and Administration (BGA) in Hennef / Sieg, pp. 13–21
  21. ↑ Without author: Timeline - Chronology of a route . In: Eisenbahn Journal , special edition 3/2002, ISBN 3-89610-095-5 , p. 86 f.
  22. ↑ Arguments and views . In: On the subject , ZDB -ID 2115698-0 , edition 6/2000, December 2000, p. 12.
  23. ↑ Rescue workers practiced on the new line . In: On the subject , ZDB -ID 2115698-0 , edition 3/2002, June 2002, p. 8.
  24. ↑ Germany-Frankfurt am Main: ventilation devices . Document 2013 / S 217-378306 of November 8, 2013 in the supplement to the Electronic Official Journal of the European Union .
  25. ↑ Limburg: ICE is stuck in the tunnel for two and a half hours . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed February 3, 2019]).