Albvorland Tunnel: Tunnel Boring Machine “Sibylle” Arrives at Wendlingen
The first tunnel boring machine (TBM) “Sibylle” completed its work at the Albvorland Tunnel between Kirchheim unter Teck and Wendlingen am Neckar in early August 2019. In just over a year and a half, the 120 m long TBM excavated some 7700 m of the Albvorland Tunnel’s north tube on the new Wendlingen–Ulm rail route of the Deutsche Bahn.
In contrast to “Wanda”, the second tunnel boring machine, which is excavating the Albvorland Tunnel’s south bore, Sibylle did not build the complete tunnel to the portal in Wendlingen am Neckar. 200 m were excavated by conventional means as a counter-drive from Wendlingen with a shotcrete lining. The reason for this was to enable a junction to be created here thus allowing the goods train link to fork off from the new route.
South Tube: TBM “Wanda” Must Still Complete Half a Kilometre
The TBM Wanda has still to tackle almost 500 m prior to reaching the target shaft in Wendlingen according to schedule in autumn 2019. Sybille for its part will be dismantled and the pieces returned to the construction site installation yard at Kirchheim unter Teck.
The construction of the 8176 m long Albvorland Tunnel within the scope of the Stuttgart–Ulm rail project worth some 380 million euros was awarded to the Swiss Implenia construction company in 2015. The two Herrenknecht TBMs started operation in October 2017; both are roughly 120 m long, weigh around 2300 t and are 10.82 m in diameter. Each machine has an output of 4400 kW.
