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Nuremberg—Project

From above: The trough in front of the tunnel
From above: The trough in front of the tunnel

Trains have been operating underground in Nuremberg since 1972. With a total length of almost 40 kilometers and with 49 underground yards, the Franconian city is not only the smallest German city with an underground railway network. It is still the only one with two driverless lines. HOCHTIEF has already completed several sections of this network, and since the beginning of 2020 we have been working on the expansion of Line 3 in the south-west of the city between the future railway stations Gebersdorf and Großreuth near Schweinau.

The section of the last section of the U 3, which is about 2,000 meters long, is constructed partly in an open, partly in a mining style. Means: A little more than half of the tunnel is being built by HOCHTIEF in the course of a (open) pit accessible from above. For the rest, two cavities (one under the Main-Danube Canal and one under a Deutsche-Bahn line) are dug under the ground with the help of a milling cutter. The so-called "new Austrian tunnel construction method" or NATM is used. The rooms are first secured with sprayed concrete, and in a second step the inner shell is made with concrete.

A flight into the tunnel under the Main-Danube Canal.