Presentations With Construction Site Visits at the 2nd Munich S-Bahn Main Line Project
After numerous digital workshops with lectures and subsequent discussion rounds, it was finally back to the construction site for us, the members of the Forum for Young Engineering Professionals (STUVA-YEP). The YEPs were invited to a number of presentations on the topic of “Challenges of Inner-City Tunnel Construction”, followed by a construction site visit to Munich.
The expansion of underground rail and road infrastructure is taking place in various areas in the Munich region. The best-known project is the 2nd Munich S-Bahn main line. It is the central element of the expansion of rail-bound public transport in the region and poses great challenges for clients, planners and contractors due to the geology, the depths and the inner-city location. An excursion to this special project was therefore particularly exciting for us.
On the evening of 10 July, we met in a group of about 30 YEPs at the Rumpler restaurant in the centre of Munich to ring in the two days of the event with a joint dinner. It is particularly noteworthy that we were able to welcome not only YEPs from the immediate vicinity, but from the entire republic up to the two coasts.
Presentations on Challenges of Inner-City Tunnel Construction
After a very nice and successful start, the actual programme began the next morning at the JV Tunnel Hauptbahnhof on the site installation area BE-West in Munich. Following a brief welcome by Marc Steinfeld as representative of the client, DB Netz AG, and an introduction to the day‘s programme by our two Steering Committee chairs Anna Zehlicke and Christian Rhein, the series of presentations began.
Dominik Spitzenberger from the Weilheim State Construction Office introduced us to his tasks as part of the Starnberg Tunnel construction team. The presentation focused on communication between developers and residents, not only in terms of how to communicate, but also in terms of the influence of early communication on public opinion of the project. This has to be taken into account especially for construction processes with serious impacts on the adjacent residents.
The following two presentations focused on the extension of the U5, Lot 1 from Laim to Pasing (Munich city centre). While Verena Inhofer from EDR GmbH gave us an understanding of the planner‘s perspective, Benedikt Ruppert from Alfred Kunz Untertagebau (now August Reiners Bauunternehmung) presented the project from the perspective of a construction manager.
Finally, to conclude the series of lectures, Marc Steinfeld from DB Netz AG (and also a member of the STUVA-YEP Steering Committee) presented the destination of our excursion, the 2nd Munich S-Bahn main line. We were given a comprehensive insight into the previous planning and preparation phases of this major project and learned about a variety of challenges of this inner-city construction project as well as the creative approaches to solving them. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the speakers once again for their fascinating insights. After the series of lectures, a snack break in the lecture room provided an opportunity to exchange ideas and to pose further questions to the speakers.
Construction Site Visits
During the subsequent excursion, we were able to see for ourselves the challenges in construction work that had been presented in the lectures. The large visitor group was divided for the guided tour of the BE-West construction sites near the Donnersberger Bridge and the main railway station. Under the guidance of Carolin Scheuerer from JV Tunnel Hauptbahnhof, we visited the construction site at the main station. There we were given an insight into the preparations for sinking an approx. 40 m deep access shaft and for the operations building. Shaft excavation is to take place under a deck to enable simultaneous work below and above ground. The cover itself consists of several floors, some of which will be part of the operations building.
On the construction site at Donnersberger Brücke, the launch pit for the tunnel boring machines is being excavated. Work on the sealing block is underway in front of the stop wall. In the immediate vicinity of the launch pit, the installation area for the tunnel drives is being prepared. Here, Marc Steinfeld presented the progress of the current work.
Due to the proximity of the two construction sites, it was possible to visit both the site at the main station and the site at the Donnersberger Bridge. We would especially like to thank our two guides for the insights they provided on their construction sites and for patiently answering all our questions.
On behalf of the Forum for Young Engineering Professionals, we would like to thank DB Netz AG and JV Tunnel Hauptbahnhof for hosting the meeting and for their hospitality, as well as Vössing Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH and August Reiners Bauunternehmung for their support with catering. We would also like to thank all the companies and senior employee who allowed their young engineers to travel to Munich for our STUVA-YEP workshop.
