Geotechnische Herausforderungen auf der Ausbaustrecke Nürnberg - Ebensfeld

Geotechnical challenges during the construction of the high-speed railway section Nürnberg - Ebensfeld

In order to reduce the travelling time from Munich to Berlin to app. 4 hours and to offer an ecology-minded travel connection in comparison to highway and air traffic, DB ProjektBau GmbH designs since the beginning of the 1990-years the construction and extension of the road section Nürnberg - Ebensfeld, which is part of the high-speed railway connection (VDE 8) from northern Italy to Scandinavia. The project is entitled as ABS VDE Nr. 8.1.1 and comprises an overall investment volume of 10 Billion Euros. This investment is conjointly done by the German Federation, the European Union and the Deutsche Bahn AG. In the last three years, Dr. Spang GmbH was commissioned to intensively evaluate the subsurface soil conditions along the ABS VDE Nr. 8 with a total length of app. 70 km and to prepare about 700 soil reports which especially focus on the improvement of the existing railway connection Nürnberg - Ebensfeld, the construction of two additional railtracks as well as the redesign of crossway constructions. The following paper gives an overview of the three years of geotechnical investigation and design and highlights on geotechnical challenges. As an example, the approach to determine the design water level during the construction and the operation period of the railway will be shown in the context of field investigation works.