2006 - ACTIVITY REPORT

The Austrian national committee of ITA has been represented at the World Tunnel Congress 2006 in Seoul with 5 attendees.

The most important conferences in 2006 concerning tunnelling were the traditional Austrian Tunnelday organized by the ITA Austria and the Geomechanics Colloquium organized by the Austrian Society for Geome-chanics. About 1000 participants from 21 countries followed the interesting topics presented by national and international speakers. Both conferences took place in Salzburg in October 2006.

In 2007 the most important conferences in Austria concerning tunnelling will be the conference of “Interdisciplinary conflicts in the design of traffic tunnels” and the conference for “Computational methods in Geome-chanics” on 10th of October as well as the traditional “Geomechanics colloquium” on 11th and 12th of October 2007 in Salzburg.

Connecting to the work of the WG19 – Conventional Tunnelling – Austria is working on a paper called “NATM – the Austrian way of conventional tunnelling” which shall be ready at the next ITA-meeting in Delhi in 2008.

During the year 2006 a various number of tunnelling projects were started or are still under construction. Starting with railway tunnels the biggest projects in Austria in 2006 were the following ones:

• Design work for the Koralmtunnel closing the missing link between Graz and Klagenfurt is fully under progress.

• Construction work for the exploratory tunnel Leibenfeld was finalized in 2006, construction work for the exploratory tunnel Mitterpichling will be finalized in Mai 2007, tunnelling at the lot of Paierdorf will last till 2009.

• Design work for the ca. 20 km long Semmringbasetunnel – the missing link for the high speed railway line between Vienna and Graz - was started with an environmental impact study.

• Lot LT31 of the Lainzer tunnel – a mined section - got under construction by ALPINE and HOCHTIEF. Lot LT33 was won by PORR / STRABAG / ZÜBLIN, supervision is done by GEOCONSULT / ILF. Tunnelling should be finalized in 2010.

• Along the high speed railway route connecting Vienna and St. Pölten the tunnel projects Perschlingtal and Wienerwald are under construction. The tender for Tunnel Perschlingtal was won by STRABAB - the length of the tunnel tube is about 5,5 km and is being build by the use of a TBM; the first tube will be ready in April 2007. The contractor of the Wienerwaldtunnel is a consortium consisting of PORR / BILFINGER / ZÜBLIN / HOCHTIEF / SWIETELSKY / JÄGER; the design is done by IC-Consulenten and Basler + Hofmann. The length of the twin tubes is about 11.5 km, about 2 km of this length is tunneled by the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), the rest is done by TBMs. Tunnelling shall be finalized in 2009.

At the Unterinntal route, which is the northern access to the Brenner Base Tunnel, the variety of chosen tunnel construction methods is very wide. BEG, the responsible organization for realizing this project, which has a length of about 40 km chose cut and cover sections, but also mined tunnels. In some parts the use of compressed air, following the very difficult alignment in this region, had to be chosen. Lot H2-1 is already finalized, for the lot H2-2 the tender documents are prepared. PORR / BÖGL won the contract for the lot H3-4; for H3-6 the contractual documents are under preparation. Lot H4 is under construction by ALPINE / GPS; tunnelling work in lot H5 is almost ready – innerlining work is still under progress. Lot H6 was finalized in 2006, in H7 tunnelling work, done by STRABAG, HOCHTIEF, ZÜBLIN, was started by the use of compressed air. The contract in lot H8 was won by the same consortium – STRABAG, HOCHTIEF, ZÜBLIN. This lot will be driven by a TBM which is already ordered by the above mentioned consortium.

• Tunnelling for connecting the Arlberg motorway tunnel with the very old Arlberg railway tunnel by so called safety cross passages was continued and should be finalized in 2007.

The next lines give a rough summary of the biggest road tunnel projects in Austria which are under construction:

• The breakthrough of the 2nd tube of the Katschbergtunnel was done, the inner lining will be finished in sum-mer 2007.

• Tunnelling at the 2nd tube of the Tauerntunnel, which was started in September 2005, is still under progress and should be finalized by PORR mid of 2008. Both tunnel projects are situated along the A10 Tauernautobahn - a well marked improvement of the traffic situation at the weekends at least during the summer months is expected by having both 2nd tunnel tubes at Katschberg and Tauern available.

• The missing link along the S35 between Graz and Bruck starting at Mixnitz is also under construction. GEOCONSULT which is the authorized representative of ASFINAG, doing the site supervision, shall be able to finalize the project till 2009. • The missing link between Bruck and Vienna – the Ganzsteintunnel at S6 - which is situated besides Mürzzuschlag is also under construction.

• The major tunnel site along the A9 is the so called Lainbergtunnel – 2nd tube. At the moment the innerlining of the 2nd tube is under construction. By having finalized the new 2nd tube, the 1st tube will be closed for rais-ing up the safety standard. The tunnel project should be available for traffic end of 2008.

• The bypass tunnel for the city of Henndorf near Salzburg, a tunnel project which has a length of about 3 km was started in 2006 and will be finalized in 2008.

Construction for the 2nd tube of the Roppener tunnel was started; ÖSTU-STETTIN, HINTEREGGER, WAYSS&FREYTAG and IMPLENIA won the contract for this project; the design is done by Bernard-Ingenieure. The length of the whole project is about 5 km and shall be finalized in 2010.

Near Bregenz the 2nd tube of the Pfänder tunnel is going to be built. The project was started in 2006 and shall be finalized in 2012; the length of the whole project is about 6.7 km.

2005 - ACTIVITY REPORT

The Austrian national committee of ITA has been represented at the World Tunnel Congress 2005 in Istanbul with approximately 10 attendees.
The most important conference concerning tunnelling in 2005 was the traditional Geomechanics Colloquium in October 2005 organized by the Austrian Society for Geomechanics which was followed by about 800 national and international attendees.
In 2006 the most important conferences concerning tunnelling will be the “Betontag 2006” (30. – 31. March 2006), the “Safety and Aerodynamics conference for tunnelling” in Graz (15. May 2006), the “Tunneltag 2006” in Salzburg (11. October 2006) and the “Geomechanik Kolloquium” in Salzburg (12. – 13. October 2006).
Essential work has again been done in the ITA working group Nr.19. Two meetings with international contri-bution took place in Istanbul in May 2005 and one more meeting was held parallel to the STUVA in Leipzig in November 2005. On the basis of these results the ITA WG Nr.19 will prepare a meeting during the ITA conference in Seoul in April 2006.
During the year 2005 a various number of projects concerning tunnelling was started in Austria. Concerning tunnel design the next design stage of the Brenner Base Tunnel was started on 1st of January 2005; the consortium PGBB which is a joint venture of Geoconsult (A), RaumUmwelt (A), Wisserodt Consulting (D) and SWS (I) won the tender for the approval design stage. For special fields like aerodynamics, tunnel safety, vibrations and cost estimations sub-consultants HBI Härter (CH), Matousek (CH), Rutishauser (CH) and ITB (I) are joining the joint venture.
Besides tunnel design several tunnel projects for metro, railway and motorway routes are under construction.
In the capital of Austria the metro in Vienna is growing by another two sections which are called U2/1 and U2/4. Further more the “Wiental-Sammler” – a project for sewage collection is under construction within the heart of Vienna.
Starting with the railway tunnels the biggest projects at the moment are the following mentioned ones.
Between Steiermark and Kärnten the tunnel project named “Koralm” is now under construction with its exploratory tunnels; the contractors STRABAG, Swietelsky, Bögl, Alpine and BEMO are involved.
Along the high speed railway route connecting Vienna and St. Pölten the tunnel projects Perschlingtal and Wienerwald are also under construction. PORR and Bilfinger+Berger have started their tunnel boring machine at Wienerwald tunnel; at the tunnelsite of Perschlingtal STRABAG is also doing the job with a tunnel boring machine.
At the Lainzer tunnel the lot LT44 is under construction by ÖSTU-Stettin, Hinteregger and Haider; lot number LT31 and LT33 which are mined sections of the Lainzer tunnel are prepared to start its construction.
At the Unterinntal route, which is the northern access to the Brenner Base Tunnel, the variety of the tunnel construction is very wide; in these regions cut and cover sections, but also mined tunnels in some parts with the use of compressed air, following the very difficult alignment in this region, had to be chosen.
Further more in 2005 tunnelling startet to connect the Arlberg motorway tunnel and the very old Arlberg railway tunnel by safety tunnels.
The next lines give a rough summary of the biggest road tunnel projects in Austria which are now under construction:
Following the S35, which is connecting Bruck and Graz, a tunnel near Mixnitz could be opened for traffic in 2005. The motorway connection between Bruck and Graz should be ready in 2008. Therefore another two tunnels have to be built along this route.
Looking at the S6 only one more tunnel, called Ganzsteintunnel near Mürzzuschlag, is missing to fully connect Bruck and Vienna with a motorway connection. Tunnelling for the 2nd tube of Ganzsteintunnel is foreseen to be started at the end of 2005.
Going from the eastern part of Austria to Salzburg, the tunnel Henndorf is under construction.
Following the heavy traffic along the A10 – Tauernautobahn during every holiday season it was decided to build the second tubes of Katschberg- and Tauerntunnel. The construction of the second tube of Katschberg was started in 2005.
Going even more to the western part of Austria, let’s stop in Tirol, were the construction of the second tube of the Roppener-Tunnel will be started at the beginning of 2006.
Due to the heavy rainfalls in August 2005 a tunnel with a length of approximately 450 meters, which is called Tunnel Gfell, had to be constructed in the area of the entrance to the Paznauntal in very short time this year.
Looking to Vorarlberg, the most western part of Austria, Tunnel Achrain is under construction.

2004 - ACTIVITY REPORT

The Austrian National Committee of ITA has been represented at the World Tunnel Congress 2004 in Singapore with approximately 10 attendees, partly with accompanying persons, and has presented 5 papers on actual tunnel projects in CERN, Santiago, Austria and Singapore.

In the frame of the General Assembly of the Member Nations the Austrian application for the Vice President of the ITA has been successfully awarded to Harald Wagner. In the frame of the General Assembly of the Member Nations the Austrian application for the World Tunnel Congress 2007 did not succeed, although the technical programme had been worked out quite in detail.

The Austrian national Committee of ITA organized the 4th Austrian Tunnel Day 2004 with a tunnel construction exhibition in Salzburg in October 2004. The Austrian Tunnel Day was followed by the traditional Geomechanics Colloquium organized by the Austrian Society for Geomechanics. Furthermore this event was organized together with the EUROCK 2004. It has to be mentioned that this was the first time that the EUROCK was organized in Austria and it has been a great success. The Austrian tunnel Day, the Geomechanics Colloquium and the EUROCK 2004 had about 800 national and international attendees.

The activities of the Austrian members in the working groups have concentrated on the WG19 “Conventional Tunnelling”. Within this working group the animator has changed from Mr. Karl Kuhnhenn (Germany) to Mr. Heinz Ehrbar from the Gotthard Alptransit in Switzerland, the vice animator was changed from Mr. Harald Lauffer to Mr. Robert Galler of GEOCONCULT.

The Austrian members of the working groups were collaborating directly with the mirror group tutors being coordinated by Mr. Galler.

During the year of 2004 the Austrian highway network both construction of new routes with tunnel sections as well as construction of second tubes at existing tunnels with bi-directional traffic was going on. Largest projects concerning the highway network were the totaling the so called “Phyrn Autobahn”, the finalizing of the second tube of Amberg Tunnel, the start of the Achrain Tunnel, the finalizing of the Semmering connection between Mürzzuschlag and Wiener Neustadt, start of the tunneling project along the S35 between Bruck and Graz and finalizing the longest Austrian highway tunnel Plabutsch, second tube.

Furthermore, a lot of railway tunnel construction work has been done in 2004. The largest projects to be mentioned are the Tunnel Stans-Terfens with a length of about 8 km and Tunnel Brixlegg with a length of about 3 km, Galerie Terfens with a length of about 1,4 km which are all situated at the Unterinntal route in Tyrol. Wienerwald Tunnel with a length of about 12 km started, construction work at the Lainzer Tunnel was going on, construction work at the Schoberpass Tunnel was finished, tender design work for the tunnel chain Perschlingtal was finished and the offers of the construction companies have been gathered by the HL-AG (which is now incorporated in the ÖBB Infrastruktur Bau AG). Further more the tender for the design of the longest tunnel in the world, the Brenner Base Tunnel was running in 2004.

On the last day of the year 2004 the international joint venture composed of Austrian, Swiss , Italian and German companies (GEOCONSULT, Wisserodt, RaumUmwelt, SWS, Rutishauser, HBI Haerter, Matousek, Ingenieurteam Bergmeister) was appointed to start with the design works for this huge project.

2004 AUSTRIAN TUNNEL DAY

06. Oktober 2004

Der jedes zweite Jahr gemeinsam mit dem Geomechanischen Kolloquium in Salzburg veranstaltete Tunneltag der ITA Österreich stand heuer unter dem Motto

Innovative Lösungen bei Tunnelbauarbeiten im In- und Ausland.

Dieser Tunneltag wurde heuer bereits zum vierten Mal abgehalten und es konnten insgesamt mehr als 600 Teilnehmer aus 21 Ländern begrüßt werden. In zwei Halbtagen wurden 12 interessante Vorträge zu Themenschwerpunkten des konventionellen und maschinellen Vortriebes gehalten. In der parallel stattfindenden Fachausstellung konnten 37 Aussteller den Tagungsteilnehmern ihre Produkte präsentieren.

Die gelungene Tagung fand ihren Ausklang im traditionellen Festabend im Kavaliershaus von Schloss Klessheim, wo der Veranstalter rund 400 Gäste begrüßen konnte.

Grussworte von DDR. Gollegger Vizebürgermeister der Stadt Salzburg (read more)

Please read 9 of the 12 papers presented:

- Strassentunnel Semmering, forcierte Projektsabwicklung: Herr Diewald, Fa. Porr (here)

- Vortrieb unter Druckluft mit Abdeckinjektionen: Herr Hirsch, Fa. Züblin (here)

- U1/3 Der Einsatz von Unterwasserbeton und andere Besonderheiten: Herr Mayr-Harting, Fa. Hinteregger (here)

- NVD Linz - Strassenbahnunterfahrung HBF, innerstädtische NÖT - Lockergesteinsvortriebe bei minimaler Überdeckung: Herr Eder, Fa. Laabmayr (here)

- Baulos U2/2 - Einsatz innovativer Technologien: Herr Pöttinger, Herr Puntigam, Fa. Hinteregger, Fa. Östu-Stettin (here)

- Lötschberg Basistunnel - Baulos Mitholz, Tunnelvortriebe bei hohen Felstemperaturen als Folge extrem hoher Überlagerungen: Herr Lehner, Fa. Strabag (here)

- Zuschlagskriterien zur Beurteilung von Alternativangeboten am Beispiel des Wienerwaldtunnels: Herr Fischer P., Herr Bauer, Fa. HL-AG (here)

- Die Universal-Doppelschild TBM auf dem Prüfstand beim Tunnel Abdalajis: Herr Weber, Fa. Jäger (here)

- Optimierung des Schutter - und Vortriebskonzeptes am Beispiel des Hofoldinger Stollens: Herr Stahn, Fa. Bilfinger Berger (here)

2002 - ACTIVITY REPORT

The Austrian National Committee of ITA has been represented at the 28th World Tunnel Congress 2002 in Sydney Australia, March 2 ­ 8, 2002, with approx. 10 attendees, partly with accompanying persons, and has presented 5 papers on actual tunnel projects and related subjects. In the course of this Conference it participated in 7 ITA Working Group Sessions with 5 individual representatives. In the frame of the General Assembly of the Member Countries the Austrian Application for Membership in the Executive Council of ITA has been successfully awarded to Harald Wagner. The Austrian National Committee of ITA organized the 3rd Austrian Tunnelday 2002 with a Tunnel Construction Exhibition in Salzburg Congress Centre on October 9, 2002. The following topic has been governing the Conference.

• Case Histories of outstanding Engineering Concepts in Design and Construction of ongoing and future projects in Austria and abroad.

The Austrian Tunnel Day was followed by the traditional Geomechanic Colloquium in Salzburg on October 10 and 11, 2002 organized by the Austrian Geomechanic Society. It has been the 51th Colloquium. The topics of this Congress have been as follows.

• Risk Assessment in Tunnelling

• Interaction of Tunnelling and Environment

• Overview of Modern Soil and Rock Mechanics

• The Contribution of Geotechnics to the Protection against Natural Hazards

The Austrian Tunnel Day and the Geomechanic Colloquium had 720 national and international attendees.

Three National Working Groups on Highway Tunnelling with Tunnel Boring Machines, on Precast Concrete Segments for Tunnels and on Risk Analysis in Tunnelling are progressing well. Reports are going to be finished during spring time of 2003.

In regard to new Corporate Members great interest has been identified in Austria resulting in more than 10 new Members.

Discussions in Lausanne and Austria have been held viewing on a postgraduate student specialized in tunnelling from Innsbruck University to become appointed to the secretariat in Lausanne after Austrian funding will be clarified.

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