Investigation tunnels Aicha-Mauls at Brenner Base Tunnel - progress of works and results

摘要

The Brenner Base Tunnel is an indispensable element of the trans-border European priority scheme TEN Project No. 1 comprising a roughly 2,200 km long high-speed railway route between Berlin/Germany and Palermo/Italy. According to the latest planning the Brenner Base Tunnel will be 55 km long, including the directly following deviation tunnel of Innsbruck the entire tunnel construction will be 62,7 km long and hence the longest tunnel of the world. Between 2007 and 2010 two investigation tunnels, Aicha and Mauls, were build. Their construction is an integral part of the safety, maintenance and dewatering concept. The investigation tunnel Mauls will work as an infrastructure element during the main tunnel construction phase, and after that as a service and rescue tunnel. With a clear section of 100 m~2 the driving runs in NATM on a length of 1.8 km within the hard rock of the Brixen granite. In a further section the tunnel runs on a length of 0.5 km towards the Periadriatic Seam in order to construct the cavern for the runnel driving machine of Aicha ending there. In the investigation tunnel Aicha the first 150 m were constructed in NATM and from that point up to the scheduled end of the driving on a length of 10,250 m with a double-shield tunnel driving machine (diameter 6 m). Results of the investigation tunnels and conclusions for the construction of the Brenner Base Tunnels will be presented in the report.