Wienerwaldtunnel

The Wienerwald tunnel is from December 9, 2012 in -service, 13.356 km long railway tunnel in the new western railway between the outskirts of Vienna and Tulln field. The tunnel passes under it lying between Gablitz and wall Bach ridge in the northern part of the Vienna Woods. The Wienerwald tunnel is the second longest railway tunnel in Austria.

The east portal is located underground in the already anticipated switch hall built in Hadersdorf- Weidlingau and continues in the direction of Vienna by the Lainzer tunnel. The west portal is located south of Tulln between Chorherrn (municipality Tulbing ) and small Staasdorf and continues towards St. Pölten through the tunnel Perschling.

Since the commissioning of the section between Vienna and St. Pölten, the traveling time between cities is only 25 minutes before it needed the fastest trains about 40 minutes.

The building is part of the new western railway, and therefore part of the European high- power axis Paris-Budapest/Bratislava the Trans - European Networks for Transport ( TEN-T) as a priority project TEN- T17.

Construction

The built from September 2004 to December 2012 tunnel was drilled from both sides. In the East, a 2,300 m long einröhriger, double-track section was built by the New Austrian Tunnelling Method. The remaining portion was milled from the west with two tunnel boring machines. In this area, two single-track tubes were built. The tunnel began in the fall of 2005.

The excavated material was stored in part, to be later used for the construction of the railway line in Tulln field as fill material for rail and noise protection dams. Another part of the material was used to redesign the Taglesberges in the Vienna Woods, where in a landfill redevelopment area, a new artificial ridge is to be built.

The breakthrough of the tunnel took place on 3 September 2007. With the new section of the new West Railway from Vienna -St. He was Pölten completed in 2012. The construction costs amounted to 617 million euros.

The catenary was set on May 6, 2012, under stress.

The commercial commissioning took place on December 9, 2012. At the same time Lainzer tunnel and the first four tracks of the Vienna Central Station went into operation.

Operation

Since December 9, 2012 the Wienerwald tunnel will go through as planned. Happen per direction the same day around 80 trains ( both passenger trains and freight trains ), a Railjet or ICE needed for it not at a speed of 230 km / h whole 5 minutes.

Safety devices

The two tubes are connected by cross passages to each other at a distance of about 500 m. In addition, there is an emergency ventilation shaft and four exit tunnel.

Facts and Figures

• Excavated material: about 2.3 million m³
• Lining segments for the expansion of the tubes: about 57,000
• Maximum speed: 250 km / h

The building is equipped with ETCS Level 2 and - equipped with conventional light signals - as fallback. These should be removed when the ETCS system has proved to be sufficiently stable.