Esta ferrovia para carga e passageiros está sendo construída no sentido norte-sul, ligando Helsinki e Valletta, e será a maior ligação ferroviária subterrânea do mundo com 2X64 km no total. Em julho passado, um túnel exploratório de 16,7 km chamado Brenner Base foi concluído com TBM Herrenknecht, entre Austria e Alemanha. O consórcio construtor formado pela Strabag da Austria e “webuild”(antiga Salini-Impregilo) iniciou a escavação em 2015 com a TBM de 6,9 m de diâmetro, sob 1300 m de rocha dos Alpes.
from Helsinki to Valletta.
precise and confident, internationally experienced miners crack the last centimeters of rock with
their tunnel boring machine. With the precision targeted breakthrough into the cavern
on the Austrian side of the new Brenner tunnel, the first main breakthrough was
achieved with a Herrenknecht tunnel boring machine (TBM). A groundbreaking signal
for what is currently the largest European railway infrastructure project and an
emotional high point for the hard-working tunnel builders, engineers and project
managers on this day: “We reached our target with pinpoint accuracy,” says Anton
Ertl, overall site manager of the construction phase, visibly moved.
The ARGE Tulfes-Pfons (ATP) construction consortium, consisting of Austria’s
STRABAG AG and Italian contractor »webuild« (formerly Salini-Impregilo), and the
Gripper TBM manufactured in Schwanau thus completed an unusual hard rock
mission. They are pioneers in the production of a superlative railway infrastructure.
From October 2015, the tunnel boring specialists steadfastly drove hard rock machine
“Günther” (Ø 7,910mm) 16.7 kilometers from north to south under up to 1,300 meters
of alpine rock toward their target. The TBM’s name is borrowed from Tyrolean
governor Günther Platter. The machine is one of a total of six tunnel boring machines
that international construction joint ventures have so far ordered from Herrenknecht
AG in Schwanau, South Baden, for the new world record project
Under the direction of the Austrian-Italian BBT SE, with the Brenner Base Tunnel and
a total length of twice 64 kilometers, the longest underground rail link in the world is
being created. It crosses beneath the Alps between Innsbruck in Austria and
Franzensfeste (Fortezza) in Italy as a particularly efficient flat rail route, that is, without
any notable, energy-consuming gradients. Leonore Gewessler, Austrian Federal
Minister of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and
Technology, explained the ecological benefits of the project:
“Currently, 72 percent of goods are transported by truck. This results in 2.5 million
truck journeys a year over the Brenner Pass. So the Brenner Base Tunnel means
a shift from truck to rail. This is not just good news for the climate, i.e. significant
CO2 reductions, but also for the people of Tyrol, and with the Brenner Base Tunnel
we will be able to increase the number of freight trains from 66 to 225 per day
Dr.-Ing. E.h. Martin Herrenknecht, founder and Chairman of the Board of
Management of Herrenknecht AG, is certain:
› “61 meters and 4 centimeters in just 24 hours with a modern Gripper TBM – in
May 2020 the tunnelers at the Brenner Base Tunnel were able to set a new record
in hard rock tunnelling. We very much appreciate the trust our customers and the
client place in our Herrenknecht technology. We are proud to be part of the next
record-setting structure in the Alps after the Gotthard Base Tunnel.”
Project features of the Brenner Base Tunnel exploratory tunnel (Gripper TBM S932 Günther)
› Findings from driving the exploratory tunnel benefit the subsequent advance of
the main tubes. They run 12 meters above the exploratory tunnel with an inner
diameter of 8.1 meters.
› The exploratory tunnel will later serve as a drainage and service tunnel.
DCRM (Disc Cutter Rotation Monitoring): the system developed by Herrenknecht
for monitoring the rotational movement and temperature of the disc cutters allows
optimization of tool maintenance intervals
Herrenknecht sextet
For the Italian lot of the exploratory tunnel (south axis), Herrenknecht supplied a
Double Shield TBM (diameter 6,800 mm) specialized in rapid tunnelling in stable rock.
By July 2020, it had already bored 9 of a total of 14 kilometers from south to north.
The customer here is BTC S.c.a.r.l. consisting of the companies Astaldi S.p.A., Ghella
S.p.A., P.A.C. S.p.A. and Cogeis S.p.A.
Since May 2019, the Italian sections of the main tubes have been bored by two
Herrenknecht Double Shield TBMs (diameter 10,650 mm), also under the direction of
BTC S.c.a.r.l. These two machines had already covered 4.3 and 4.7 kilometers
respectively by July 2020. Two Herrenknecht Single Shield TBMs (diameter 10,340
mm) are planned for the main tubes on the Austrian side. Here the ARGE H51 PfonsBrenner joint venture (PORR Bau GmbH – Tunnelbau, G. HINTEREGGER & SÖHNE
Baugesellschaft m.b.H., ITINERA S.p.A., Società Italiana per Condotte d´Acqua
S.p.A.) is responsible for the tunnelling. Tenders for additional mechanized machine
drives are currently in preparation.
Group deliveries
The Herrenknecht Group has also supplied the large-scale Brenner Base Tunnel
project with a belt conveyor system for the transport of excavated rock. Bochum-based
H+E GmbH designed and manufactured a system consisting of 37 belt conveyors and
four spreaders with a total length of over 60 kilometers. The entire system is controlled
from a central control panel. Additionally, Euroform S.r.l. is supplying formwork for the
lining of machine-driven or conventionally advanced tunnels. For the Mauls lot, the
SDS production and logistics management system for segment production comes
from VMT GmbH. VMT supplied the TUnIS navigation systems for all six tunnel boring
machines ordered to date – for the Gripper TBM also the newly developed
TUnIS.mobile app for operating the navigation system from outside the control cabin.
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