Design and Construction of the AUDI Tunnel in Ingolstadt, Germany

D. Meyer Walter Bau -AG ABSTRACT: The AUDI Tunnel is part of a new high-speed railway line and is located near the AUDI car factory in Ingolstadt. The tunnel was constructed using the cut and cover method with sidewalls consisting of diaphragm and/or contiguous piles and a concrete lid. Due to the artesian borewater pressure conditions in the underlying karstified limestones along approx. 85 % of the tunnel length the excavation below the lid and the construction of the inner lining were carried out under compressed air. 1 INTRODUCTION The new railway line between (see Fig.1) the cities of Ingolstadt and Nuremberg and the upgrade of the existing railroad from Ingolstadt to Munich is part of a high speed European railway network from Scandinavia via Berlin and Munich to Italy. Between Nuremberg and Ingolstadt the Deutsche Bahn Netz AG is constructing a completely new railway of a length of 89 km. Since the maximum speed on this new railroad will be 300 km/h, the sleepers are embedded in concrete. A tunnel construction became necessary due to spatial constraints in the Northern suburb of Ingolstadt and the close proximity to the AUDI car manufacturing plant. The so-called AUDI tunnel has a total length of 1970 m, the tunnel itself is 1258 m long, the ramp in the North 395 m and in the South 317 m respectively. The twin track tunnel has a maximum inclination of 2 %; the rails are located down to 12 m below ground level. The tunnel has 4 emergency exits and is equipped with a gas and smoke detection system. 2 GROUND CONDITIONS The following geological and hydrogeological conditions, as shown in Fig.2, were encountered along the tunnel route: The stratigraphic sequence starts with sandy, silty gravel (q ks) of 2 to 8 m thickness and a permeability of k = 10-3 m/s. The underlying Tertiary sequences normally consist of cross -bedded, micaceous fine sand over silts and clays (t t) with numerous interstratified beds of fine sand. They are followed by Cretaceous clay (tk) containing beds of rearranged Jurassic gravel, limestone and dolomite, the so-called Schutzfelsschichten. Karstified Tithonian limestones and dolomites underlie these beds. Due to karstification these rocks are very irregular with fissures and cavities which are open or filled and highly permeable. A ground-water table is situated in the Quarternary gravel and the Tertiary sequences of t s and t t. The mean ground-water level reaches up to 1.5 to 2 m below ground-surfaces in the North and about up to 4 m in the South.

Figure 1: Location of new Rai lroad

Figure 2: Geological Longitudinal Section

A confined groundwater-level was observed within the Schutzfelsschichten at the level of the lower Jurassic karstification. Within the Tithonian limestone there are artesian conditions, the borewater pressure lies 1m to 2 m above the ground surface. 3 THE DESIGN 3.1 General The geological subsoil conditions required two different construction methods, which in turn necessitated two environmental approvals by the authorities. Thus the AUDI tunnel was split into 2 sections: the Northern tunnel section of a length of 1070m and the 188m long Southern section (see also Fig. 2 and Fig.3).

The joint venture of WALTER BAU-AG / DYWIDAG / ZBLIN proposed as an alternative design the cut and cover method for the construction of the Northern part due to the geological conditions and the ground water pressure. The excavation below the lid and the concreting of the inner lining is carried out in a working chamber with compressed air (Schwarz & Floss 2000). The Southern tunnel part is also constructed applying the cut and cover method, however in atmospheric conditions according to the clients design. This tunnel section was awarded to the same joint venture.

Figure 3: Layout

Figure 4: Cross Section of AUDI Tunnel North

Figure 5: AUDI Tunnel North Open Air Works

The tunnel has a width of 11,6 m. The length of each concrete block is 12,5 m. 3.2 Design of AUDI Tunnel North The AUDI Tunnel North comprises of following main structures as shown in Figure 4:

rigid frame, consisting of diaphragm walls (1,00 m thick) as side walls and a 1,2 m thick lid inner lining, consisting of a 1.4m thick bottom slab and 0,5 m thick inner sidewalls.

The construction is carried out in steps, as schematically shown in Figure 5, i) Regarding open air works:

sheet piles in upper, permeable gravel diaphragm walls, built from ground surface excavation to b ase of lid concreting of lid backfilling of lid removal of sheetpiles

The required air pressure PL was determined using the equation (Schwarz & Meyer 2001): PL / PL + D tt ( + w ) / y cal wk Depending on the location the designed air pressure varied from 0,7 to 1,45 bar. Any borewater pressure built-up in the fine sand, silt and clay layers below the excavation line was prevented by well points which were installed from an intermediate excavation stage (2 m above final excavation level). Thus, hydraulic instabilities prior to the final excavation could be controlled as well as a reduction of artesian pressure achieved where the limestone and dolomites were unexpectedly close to the final excavation level. 3.3 Design of AUDI Tunnel South The AUDI Tunnel South comprises following main structures as shown in Figure 7: a hinged frame consisting of anchored bored piles walls and a lid inner lining consisting of a 1,5 m thick bottom slab and 0,8 m thick inner side walls. As this tunnel section is located at the area of the existing railway line, piling and construction of the lid had to be undertaken in several stages in accordance with the track routes. The narrow space, available between the tracks, allowed a shallow excavation of the gravel and, thus the lid is situated just below the ground surface. The inner height of the tunnel is 9,1 m

To minimise any blocking of seepage in the upper gravel layer during construction, these works were carried out in sections of 150 m. Once sheeting was removed works in the subsequent section commenced. ii) Regarding underground works excavation below lid and concreting of bottom slab and inner walls along a length of 80m from Northern portal installation of air locks at the tunnel portal excavation below lid in a working chamber in compressed air conditions concreting of bottom slab and side walls under compressed air removal of air lock after completion of the side walls installation of rails and technical equipment For the design of the air pressure inside the working chamber two parameters had to be considered (see also schematic in Fig.6): the artesian borewater pressure wk i n t h e Tithonian limestone and dolomites the depth D tt of the Tithonian layer below the excavation base

Figure 6: Design of Air Pressure

4. THE CONSTRUCTION In this paper only the works under compressed air conditions will be addressed in some details. Standard procedures were followed regarding the South tunnel. 4.1 The working chamber A temporary, 1,2m thick concrete bulkhead was installed 30 m from the tunnel portal (see Figures 8 and 9). Connected to this are a man-lock made of steel for 32 persons as well as the concreted muck lock chamber.
Tunnelportal North Ramp North

lock. Three compressors were supplying the tunnel with compressed air with a separate compressor on standby (in compliance with German regulations two thirds of the compressors must be able to achieve the total required output: 240* 2/3 = 160 m/min). A water-cooling system with two wet cooling towers in closed circuit was used to cool off the compressed air. As a result, the air temperature and thus also the amount of moisture in the air could be kept to a minimum and the use of low temperature dryers could be omitted. The electrical power for the entire site was supplied by the public 20 kV networks. For the supply of the compressors a transformer 20/0.4 with 800 kVA was used as
Concrete Pipeline temporary Filling (Ballast) Backfilling (Gravel)

Muck Lock

Diesellok mit Schutterwagen

Diaphragm Wall

Tertiary Silt / Clay ( tt) Cretaceous Clay (Schutzfels) ( tk)

Figure 8: Portal Area with Bulkhead and Muck Lock

The man-lock has three chambers and is fitted with oxygen breathing equipment. The two gates of the muck lock allowed the passage of machinery and equipment measuring up to 3 m in width and 4.25 m in height. The length of the lock chamber is 15 m. This allows the removal of all equipment from the tunnel for necessary repairs. The gates are hydraulically operated and are protected by means of barrier-type buffers against any impact arising from the trains driving into the

well as a transformer 20/0.4 with 630 kVA, for the supply of the excavation equipment in the tunnel a transformer 20/6 with 630 kVA was used. In order to be able to rule out any breakdown of the co mpressors, also in case of a power failure, the power supply of the compressors and all safety -relevant equipment was ensured by a 850 kVA emergency power generator. 4.2 Excavation and mucking

The excavation of the quaternary gravels and tertiary sands and silts was carried out using two electrically powered excavators of the 20-ton class. The first excavator was cutting a 7 m high and 12.6 m wide cross section into the face at a working level of approx. 1.8 m above the final depth and was transferring the muck directly into the crusher. The second excavator operated at a distance of approx. 50-m behind the working face and was cutting down to the final depth. The muck was delivered into the crusher via a 35 m long conveyor belt. Using a cradle, which can be fixed to the excavators by means of a rapid coupling, drainage boreholes were drilled with an auger of a diameter of 100mm. The excavated muck arriving at the feed hopper of the crusher was graded using a bar grate so that only lumps measuring more than 200mm in diameter got into the auger-type rolling crusher.
F F

The movement of the plant was carried out by an advancing mechanism mounted on rails. Therefore the crusher could move independently with its own crawler. The conveyor belt plant offloaded the muck into skips. The two trains in the tunnel each have a battery-powered locomotive of 25 tons and 112 kW as well as two one-sided self-unloading skips, each of a capacity of 20 m. Apart form two shunting areas at the lock; there was only a single axis of a track laid in the tunnel axis with a track width of 900 mm. The trains are pushed into the lock by the electric locomotive and uncoupled, the locking out of the trains was carried out without locomotive. Having passed the muck lock the skips were pulled up the North ramp of a gradient of 2 % by a diesel locomotive.
Figure 10: Under ground Works

4. 3 Concreting For concreting the bottom slab and the walls a tunnel concrete pump with distributor boom was used. For this purpose the concrete is delivered from a concrete pump on the surface through a passage in the lid of the structure to the concrete pump in the tunnel. The passages for the pipeline were located at a distance of approx. 100 m and were secured by at least one slide valves on the pressure side as well as on the open-air side. The concreting of the walls was carried out using structures of two onesided wall formwork for a block length of 12,5m. 5 EXPERIENCE 5.1 Progress

Figure 9: Northern Portal with Muck Lock

The muck was then transferred to the mobile belt conveyor plant which ran along the roof, thus ensuring that the work carried out in connection with construction of the bottom slab and walls was not disturbed by the mucking process. The mobile belt conveyor plant basically consisted of a conveyor with a belt width of 800 mm and a length of 180 m (ou tput: 300 tons/h).

Construction under compressed air was carried out over a period of 14 months ending in Oct. 2001. The critical path for the works was the concreting process of the bottom slab. The envisaged progress of 25 m of bottom slab per week was successfully achieved. 5.2 Air pressure and consumption The supplied air pressure varied between 0,65 bar and 1,39 bar, depending on the a.m. parameters.

Concrete Pipeline

Dewatering Backfill

Tertiary Clay / Silt ( tt)

Creataceous Clay
(Schutzfels) ( tk)

Concreting of Walls

Concreting of Bottom Slab

Excavation

Figure 10: Underground works

The consumption of compressed air ranged from 26m/min to 147 m/min. It is a function of the applied air pressure the traffic through the muck lock.

5.3 Dewatering The water level of the Karstic aquifer and the Quartermary gravels was controlled by the air pressure and the dewatering well points. The water levels were lowered by increas ing the air pressure (see Figure 13). In this way the excavation could be performed n the dry. 5.4 Limits of compressed air Whenever sand-filled ravines were encountered in the clay, the dewatering process with compressed air posed a problem. As the permeability of the

Figure 11: Bottom Slab

The consumption of compressed air increased disproportionately to the supply of the air pressure as shown in Figure 12 (Schwarz & Meyer 2001). Once the bottom slab and the inner walls were concreted about 70 m to 100 m behind the tunnel face, the tunnel length did not play any role regarding air consumption. About 70 to 75% of the compressed air vanished through the tunnel face; the rest was lost through the muck lock. During the Christmas period the consumption of compressed air increased, which means that the porosity of the soil materials increased allowing an increasing volume of air to escape.
Figure 12

embedding clay is very low, the water in the ravines cannot be displaced by compressed air. In the few cases the sand/water mix was allowed to flow into the tunnel.

6. SUMMARY The AUDI tunnel was built in difficult hydrogeological conditions. The use of compressed air for the tunneling works has allowed an economic construction. To reach this target, the design has to consider the variation of ground and water conditions. With the dewatering of the underlying layers the air pressure was kept within a range, which allows efficient working time in the chamber. Such a combination of dewatering and compressed air requires an experienced geotechnical management at site. 7. REFERENCES Schwarz & Floss: AUDI Tunnel in Ingolstadt, Baugrundtagung 2000 Schwarz & Meyer: AUDI Tunnel Ingolstadt: Deckelbauweise unter Druckluft im gespanntem Druckwasser, STUVA 2001

Figure 13: Control of Water Levels