Tunnel Osterberg

This tunnel comes after the Unstrut Viaduct, which is currently under construction (length: 2,668 metres, height: 50 metres).

A short cutting (length: 43 metres) provides access to two tunnel tubes, both of which are 2,082 metres long. At the east end they emerge into a cutting with a depth of 18 metres. The line climbs for 500 metres until it reaches ground level, where the next line construction lot starts.

The Osterberg Tunnel construction lot includes the two portals, the surface drainage system, roads alongside the track, emergency access roads and a retaining wall adjacent to the protected FFH area of the dry slopes by Steigra (Trockenhänge bei Steigra).

The 2,082-metre Osterberg Tunnel, which has two single-track tubes, is being constructed as a double-skin vault structure with an outer skin of shotcrete and a concrete vault inner skin by conventional means using explosives and excavators. The two skins are separated by an air cushion foil.

The tunnel cross-section is being excavated in sections: the upper section first followed by the two lower sections. The cross-passages are started soon after the upper section is excavated so as to keep the tunnel logistics for the excavation of the lower sections separate by crossing between the two tubes.

Facts and figures

• Tunnel length: 2 x 2,082 km
• Cross-section: approx. 86 m²
• Distance between the track centres: 15 - 55 m
• Min./max. depth below the surface: 3 m / 35 m
• Rescue tunnels (every 400 m): 4
• Construction roads: approx. 3,5 km
• Construction site area: 36.000 m²
• Excavated material: 1,1 Mio. m³
• Design speed: 300 km/h
• Planned completion (structural work): 2012

More Information: DB Netz AG