German rail operator, Deutsche Bahn has awarded the US$386M contract to build the 3.8km long Bad Cannstatt Tunnel on the massive Stuttgart 21 project to the Alpine/Hochtief/Wayss & Freytag JV. The project is scheduled for completion by 2018. “Alpine was able to secure another tunnel project for a major client, Deutsche Bahn. The Bad Cannstatt Tunnel makes the sixth railroad tunnel Alpine is building simultaneously for DB,“ said Josef Arnold, managing director of Alpine BeMo Tunneling.
The Stuttgart – Ulm railroad project comprises the Stuttgart 21 section and the new Wendlingen – Ulm line. The construction project is the largest enlargement of the public railroad system in Baden-Württemberg since the 19th century. About half of the 117km new railroad line will be through 16 tunnels. The tunnels are the mainstay of the entire railway project: in the future trains will travel underground in the Stuttgart city center.
The new Stuttgart–Ulm line will be part of the European high-speed “Magistrale for Europe“ net, linking cities and regions with a total of 34 inhabitants and 16 million employees in five states. Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and Ulm are centrally located along the 1,500km railroad line connecting the European cities of Paris, Strasbourg, Munich and Vienna with Bratislava and Budapest. As the main east/west axis, the Magistrale will be the backbone of the Trans-European railroad network. The extension of the Magistrale is an important prerequisite for a rapid economic, political and cultural coalescence between Western and Eastern Europe.
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