Tunnelling Starts at Leipzig City TunnelA 65 m-long 1,100-tonne shield TBM dubbed 'Leonie' and supplied by Herrenknecht was officially launched on 11th January, 2007 during an official ceremony at the city tunnel in Leipzig, Germany. Tunnelling actually began on 15th January, with the groundbreaking of the concrete wall in the Bayerischer station box. The machine is expected to reach Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz station in March and to emerge at the Leipzig Hauptbahnhof central station in November 2007 after a 1,782 m trip. Then, the machine will be trucked back to Bayerischer station to drive the second tunnel. The 9,020 mm-diameter mixshield will bore at a depth of 22 metres through clay, river gravel, sand, sandstone and monolith soil. The cutterhead is powered by 880 kW. The total thrust is 55,000 kN. The cutterhead torque is 7,255 kNm. The tunnel will be lined with 40 cm-thick concrete rings consisting of seven segments and a key segment. For both tunnel, 13,000 segments will be produced. Visit www.herrenknecht.com The twin-tube tunnel will be used for suburban, regional and long-distance connections, and will feature underground stations at the Central station (Leipzig Hauptbahnhof), the Market Square (Markt), Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz, and the Bavarian railway station (Bayerischer Bahnhof). In addition to shortening travel times between the city centre, the airport and the Leipzig new fair and exhibition centre, the tunnel will speed up rail links with Chemnitz, Hof, Zwickau and Dresden, and improve connections between northern and southern Germany. The tunnel will make train traffic in the Leipzig inner city area 20 minutes faster.It is currently scheduled for completion in November 2008. The whole project with its four underground stations should enter in service in end 2011 or early 2012. The project construction cost has been revised to EUR585 million and a risk analysis by DEGES has revealed that the cost overruns will amount to EUR73 million due to new safety standards making necessary to take measures like escape routes in the tunnel. The tunnel forms part of lot B awarded to Dywidag, Alpine Bau, Strabag, Oevermann, and Grund-, Pfahl- und Sonderbau. Their contract also includes the four stations (Central station, Markt, Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz and Bayerischer). Click de/30. Read E-News Weekly 37/2003 & 36/2003. Visit www.citytunnelleipzig.de and www.arge-ctl.de 06/07.