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The tunnel below the A8 federal motorway is located on the Swabian Alb plateau, which is intersected by the new Wendlingen–Ulm high-speed rail route. Reports on the major project and the plan approval section (PFA) 2.3 Alb plateau have already appeared elsewhere in the magazine tunnel. The tunnel lies close to the highest point of the route, in the third route section of the roughly 21 km long plan approval section.

When space is scarce in the big cities, construction targets the “third dimension”. This has been the case for quite some time now. Modern high-risers have been featured in urban centres in conurbations since the mid-1800s; the first skyscrapers appeared almost 100 years ago. However, the Swiss SCAUT initiative established just a few months ago is not directed sky high: “The third dimension after all, also leads in the other direction – down below”, as Felix Amberg, the president of the SCAUT development association maintains.

On the morning of 12 August 2017, water and earth collapsed into the east bore of the Rastatt Tunnel in the course of construction works. The permanent way and tracks of the Rheintalbahn (Rhine valley...

In connection with tunnelling injections are executed with different goals in mind. An important objective in this case is sealing the rock immediately bordering the tunnel with the aim of preventing water being conducted along the tunnel shell. This is of particular significance if layers of rock which carry water as well as layers sensitive to it have to be penetrated, because the water must be prevented from being transported to the sensitive layers. Injections for sealing rock are also needed if the tunnel is partly produced with a closed invert and partly with an open invert or if waterproofing structures are required to prevent longitudinal conductivity. This report deals with the suitability of injection agents for the cited purpose.

More than 15 km of the tunnels for the Stuttgart–Ulm rail project located in the Stuttgart urban area lie in gypsum keuper containing anhydrite, which swells in contact with water. Owing to the swelling pressures that occur and the displacements caused by swelling, major damage has resulted in the case of many tunnels in the past. As a consequence, the corresponding sections of the tunnels in the Stuttgart urban area are driven absolutely dry.

Digitalisation in construction leads to a decisive advance: according to studies, up to 57% of the work performed in the construction process still has no added value, caused by mistakes and defects, waiting and search times, poorly coordinated sequences and lack of communication. With digitalisation, it should be possible in the future to exploit this potential, enabled by the use of innovative technologies like Concremote. The sensor solution from Doka delivers data of the temperature and strength development of concrete in real time.

The same applies for every tunnel project: segments must be at the right place at the right time. Towards this end, special demands are posed on the transport and storage of these weighty concrete...

With the breakthrough of the last two tunnel boring machines into the target pit of construction section 40 on June 12, 2017 the tunnel and pipe jacking work for the Emscher sewer has been completed.

In fall 2014 the Chinese company LNSS (Liaoning Censcience Industry Co. Ltd.) acquired the Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Corporation, thus obtaining all intellectual properties of former TBM manufacturer Lovat. A new company “Lovsuns Tunneling Canada” was set up in Toronto. In January 2017 Lovsuns shifted the Canadian TBM production to the LNSS facilities in China. Freelancing journalist Roland Herr spoke with Hongyu Xue, Managing Director of Lovsuns Tunneling Canada, about the reasons for the relocation of the TBM production, about Lovsun’s proposed role in the TBM business in the years ahead and about his view on the growing influence of China in the mechanized tunnelling market.