SALZBURG/Cochem Thousands of trains have rolled through the Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel between Cochem and Ediger-Eller since its commissioning in 1877. The ALPINE Construction Company has been building the “New Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel” for Deutsche Bahn AG parallel to the existing tunnel since the end of 2009. The tunneling boring machine, whose drill head has a diameter of 10.12 meters, is digging through arenaceous, argillaceous and loose rock at a top speed of 20 meters per day. The tunnel drill cut through the last 4.183 meters, reaching its goal in the historic city center of Cochem today.
New Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel meets the latest safety requirements
The new, single-track Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel is located on the railway line between Koblenz and Perl in Rhineland-Palatinate. The new tunnel meets the latest safety standards. The new tunnel tube will be connected to the old tunnel tube by eight 15-meter accessible cross passages. The project has a contract value of about 80 million euros. A total of 67,000 cubic meters of concrete were used to line the tunnel walls with reinforced concrete tubbing, for the tunnel floor and for the construction of the two tunnel portals and eight cross drifts. The 360,000 cubic meters of excavated material was removed by rail in an environmentally friendly way. The first trains are scheduled to run through the new tunnel at the end of 2012. Afterwards the old Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel will be rehabilitated.
The ALPINE Construction Company is a global player
The Austrian ALPINE Construction Company has built roads, motorways, power plants, stadiums, railways and subways, bridges, residential, commercial and industrial buildings around the world. Together with its subsidiary, ALPINE-ENERGIE, it promotes the construction and development of sustainable, alternative energies and energy networks. Approximately half of the construction output of over 3 billion euros is generated in the core markets, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. ALPINE has won international acclaim with foreign projects: ALPINE is responsible for the construction of three stadiums for the 2012 European Football Championships in Poland as well as subway lines in New Delhi and Singapore, the Bulgarian hydraulic power plant in Tsankov Kamak and hundreds of other construction projects of every type and size.
„New Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel“ broken through in the city of Cochem on the Moselle
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