Offenbach City Tunnel

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The City Tunnel is a standard gauge railway line in Offenbach am Main and the distance over which all the lines in the eastern region of the S- Bahn Rhein -Main run (S1, S2, S8 and S9). It is in large parts of the Berliner Straße.

Planning alternatives

Prior to the construction of the City Tunnel five different variants were examined. Three variants have seen in different forms, the extension of the Frankfurt city tunnel in front, where a tunneling of Oberrad in the southern (variant D), medium (variant C) and northern (variant B) area was planned to be at Western Offenbacher residential community to thread back on the existing route ( in the direction of Offenbach Hauptbahnhof and Offenbach Ost ). All versions have but - at least during the construction period, possibly permanently by changing the groundwater flows - a massive intervention in the agricultural usefulness of surfaces means so many upper wheels farms saw their existence. The city of Frankfurt moved to corresponding protests back to their original agreement to the upper wheel tracks.

Another variant (variant A ) provided to build the route largely as it was ultimately realized, however, the tunnel would be from Kaiserlei been designed so that even this would be threaded at the location described above back into the existing route. In addition to the realized today routing also, this design offered the advantage that it does not prejudged the pipeline route in Offenbach and also the option included on the then planned construction of a sports hall with up to 20,000 visitors by the later construction of an additional station to respond. Would any of these four variants were realized, there had never been the city tunnel in the city of Offenbach.

In the fall of 1983, a cost-benefit - analysis by Prof. Gerhard Heimerl for routing in Offenbach to the conclusion that the underground city route to higher utility offer as the expansion of existing lines in Offenbach city despite the cost.

Thus, the decision for the City Tunnel in Offenbach had finally fallen. It is an irony of history that today's route largely follows the route of the former local train between Frankfurt and Offenbach, which was shut down in 1955 due to lack of profitability and demand.

Construction phase

Upon completion of the necessary negotiations on the financing of the project on 4 December 1986, and the necessary ratifications in the various committees and the creation of the necessary legal means of plan approval in late 1990 the conditions were for the full construction. However, the official start of construction was carried out by a symbolic action on 23 March 1988.

Also in Offenbach had one next to the "usual" problems such as intersecting supply and disposal lines, cable lines and traffic management, the difficulty of being able to create the tunnel is not anywhere in an open design means an excavation. However, were 3.5 km of a total of 3.7 kilometers of tunnels to be built in an open design, there were special problems in the area of ​​the corner Bieberer-/Friedhofstraße where had to be built directly under the basement foundations, so that a tube shield cover was required.

Commissioning and subsequent amendments

The route between Frankfurt and Offenbach Ost Miihlberg was able to resume operation on 23 May 1995. This was associated with the extension of the S8 to Hanau, while the S1 went only to Offenbach Ost. The S2, which had until then its end point at the mill mountain, then drove to Frankfurt South Station.

After the completion of the expansion measures on the Rodgaubahn as well as the route to Dietzenbach today, on lines S1, S2, S8 and S9 by the Offenbach City Tunnel. Of insufficient capacity of the Frankfurt City Tunnel therefore not wrong to June 13, 2010 Unlike the other lines, the S2 only every half hour, while the gain features of the S2 only drove between Dietz Bach and Offenbach Hbf and Frankfurt Hbf and low living and the tunnel being used.

In the course of the Offenbach City Tunnel, the S- Bahn run at three stations: Kaiserlei Leather Museum and Market Square. All stations are very similar in their construction and are without support from. At the same time they are the changed requirements designed following very clearly by the need for security of passengers and the prevention of graffiti sprayer land, planning the stations was for the first time not in the architectural history of the S- Bahn Rhein -Main by the web itself, but by commissioned architects.