Austria

The Lower Inn Valley line
Tunnel shell completed

The Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) project engineers working on the new Lower Inn Valley line awarded themselves an early Christmas present in late 2010, with the application, at Radfeld on December 3, of the final consignments of concrete for the new rail tunnel, thus completing the shell of this 32 km long double-track underground link between Kundl and Baumkirchen.

The new Lower Inn Valley line is scheduled to open to traffic in late 2012, its completion signifying for the clients reduced rail noise, greater carrying capacities and, in particular, the capability of further expanding passenger traffic in the lower valley of the River Inn.

Tunnelling 24/7 since August, 2003

Work on the tunnel for the new line started in August, 2003. Ten sections were excavated and concreted, with work continuing virtually around the clock. Subsidiary engineering works included thirty-five escape shafts, more than 10 km of escape galleries, transverse tunnels and various access adits. The ÖBB engineers used practically all contemporary tunnelling methods for this project. The new Lower Inn Valley rail line is one of Europe‘s most modern.

Demanding project lot at Radfeld

Work on the Radfeld Tunnel has been under way since April, 2008. This sector involved the excavation of a trench 16 m wide, 1600 m in length and up to 15 m deep. Divers were deployed to secure the trench against the ever-present groundwater by means of massive concrete slabs. The tunnel workers have in the meantime been busy concreting around 20 m of this rail tunnel each week. The 800 m long cutting at Radfeld completes the tunnel structure. ÖBB constructed a temporary bridge over the B171 highway to assure the safe and trouble-free passage of construction traffic to and from the site.

Installation of rail equipment proceeding at full speed

The equipping of the new rail tunnels is now going ahead at top speed, in order to be sure of meeting the tight completion schedule. At present, 1 km of track is being laid every week; dozens of companies are also working in parallel on the installation of safety and control systems, including no less than 2,200 km of cabling, equivalent to around fifty-five individual cables running in parallel from Kundl to Baumkirchen.

All work on schedule

The new Lower Inn Valley rail line is scheduled to open in December, 2012, and will provide Austria‘s transport industry with new, environmentally friendly rail capacities. Residents and companies situated near the existing line can now look forward to a significant reduction in noise levels, particularly at night. The project will also make it possible to further expand local passenger transport services in the Lower Inn Valley.

x

Related articles:

Issue 01/2011 Austria

The new Lower Inn Valley rail line: Vibration measurements are completed

Untertiteltext Englisch

Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) has in the past two years carried out a comprehensive programme of measurements on its new Lower Inn Valley line, in order to research more precisely the propagation...

more
Issue 03/2010

Austria Lower Inn Valley Railway: Route selected between Kundl and Kufstein

The first upgraded section of the new Lower Inn Valley Railway between Kundl and Baumkirchen will start operating in 2012. From then on goods trains will mainly travel underground, something which...

more
Issue 04/2013 Austria/Italy

BrennerCongress 2013 in Bolzano

Uni.-Prof. Bergmeister, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna/A, opened the 6th BrennerCongress in Bolzano/I on February 21, 2013. He chaired the International Symposium jointly...

more
Issue 05/2015 Seminar , October 6 + 7, 2015

Noise Protection in Rail Traffic

Captioned “Goodbye Rail Bonus – Which Effects does it exert on Noise Precaution”?, Dr.-Ing. Friedrich Krüger, STUVA Inc., is to chair a seminar on “Noise Protection in Rail Traffic”. The seminar...

more
Issue 05/2016 Seminar

Noise Protection in Rail Traffic

Captioned “Goodbye Rail Bonus – Which Effects does it exert on Noise Precaution”?, Dr.-Ing. Friedrich Krüger, STUVA, is to chair a seminar on “Noise Prevention in Rail Traffic”. The seminar is...

more