Salzburg/Madrid: Work has commenced on the new museum that is to house the royal collections in Madrid. The contract was awarded to the Spanish FCC construction group who commissioned the specialists at ALPINE to carry out the difficult anchorage at a depth of 33 meters. The ALPINE subsidiary, Grund- Pfahl- und Sonderbau GmbH (GPS), is to complete the foundation engineering in just four months. This is ALPINE’s first construction project in Spain.
The new museum will be located between the cathedral and the royal palace in the center of Madrid. The subsoil is expected to pose a great challenge. “The typical soil in Madrid, the so-called “tosco,” requires an extremely high supporting force,” explains Klaus Breit, ALPINE’s representative and GPS’ managing director. Sophisticated anchorage will be required for the construction of a building this size, something the GPS team specializes in. “Our anchors transfer the necessary supporting force to the Madrid subsoil like oversized dowels“, according to Breit. GPS will install prestressed anchors bearing a load of up to 180 tons in the 300-meter construction pit stretching over a length of 18,000 meters. The anchors used are up to 50 meters long.
Experts in foundation engineering
Klaus Breit and his team were responsible for extensive anchorage work for the Pyhrn Motorway and for the construction of the Wiener Linien public transit network. Special foundation engineering projects currently in progress include the Brenner Railway’s Unterinntal line and the A5 PPP Motorway.
Spain is a promising market for the ALPINE subsidiary, GPS. Further contracts on the Iberian peninsula are anticipated based on the company’s extensive know-how in the foundation engineering sector.