Consultants Invited to Bid for Planning of Stuttgart 21 Project in GermanyStuttgart 21, the largest railway construction project in southwest Germany in many years, is going ahead. The first tenders for planning have been invited by Deutsche Bahn (DB), the German railways. Click de/22.After years of discussion, DB's ambitious Stuttgart 21 project had been approved together with a high speed line from Stuttgart to Ulm. A memorandum of understanding was signed in Berlin on 19th July, 2007 by Wolfgang Tiefensee, the federal minister of transport, building and urban affairs, Guenther Oettinger, the president of Baden Wuertemberg, Wolfgang Schuster, Stuttgart's mayor, Hartmut Mehdorn, the CEO of DB, and Bernd Steinacher, the director of the Greater Stuttgart region. The agreement was reached just one day before the expiry of the window for submitting applications for financial support from the European Union.This major urban planning project is to be implemented in unison with the construction of the new 58 km Wendlingen-Ulm high speed line. This is the result of the memorandum of understanding. The parties agreed that construction of the new Wendlingen-Ulm high speed line and its integration into the Stuttgart 21 project as part of the priority trans-European network (TEN) project number 17 should move forward from 2010. Visit www.bmvbs.de/en/Transport-,1873.1007846/Tiefensee-Breakthrough-for-the.htm?global.back=/en/-%2C1873/Transport.htm The project objectives of Stuttgart 21 and the Stuttgart-Ulm high speed line are to eliminate the current bottleneck between Stuttgart and Ulm, to close a further gap on the TEN corridor between Paris and Bratislava, to ensure Baden Wuerttemberg's integration into the European high speed rail network, and to strengthen Baden Wuerttemberg as a business location. The total cost is put at around EUR4.8 billion, of which EUR2.8 billion for Stuttgart 21 and the Stuttgart-Wendlingen section and EUR2 billion for the Wendlingen-Ulm section.The 88 km high speed rail line stretching from Stuttgart to Ulm will reduce journey times by ICE train between the capital of Baden Wurttemberg and Ulm on the Danube from 56 to 28 minutes. Building work is scheduled to start in 2010 and will be completed in 2019-20. Drees & Sommer undertakes project management. Visit www.dreso.com/english/unternehmen/3016.htmStuttgart 21 and Stuttgart-Wendlingen high speed lineStuttgart 21 was first announced in April 1994 but had to be stopped twice. The decision taken in July by politicians and planners gives the project a decisive boost. Stuttgart 21 still requires much planning and technical expertise on tunnel construction and topology. Preliminary construction will already start in 2008. Although most planning approvals have now been granted, major civil works are still not expected to start for a further three years.The Stuttgart 21 project aims at reorganising the Stuttgart railway hub and represents the fulfilment of an ambitious urban planning project which will lead to the major rearrangement of Stuttgart's city centre. The current surface level central terminal station will be demolished (except for the front station building which contains shops, restaurants, a post office, and other facilities) and replaced by a low-lying through station. The land currently occupied by the southwest facing rail terminal and multi-track switching yard stretching northeastwards from the station for nearly two kilometres will be cleared and redeveloped into a city park along with new apartment and condo buildings, and low level office buildings.The new high speed line will be laid in an underground tunnel at a right angle to the existing tracks to eliminate the cul de sac for all trains, and free up for redevelopment around 40% of the land area in the city centre now occupied by railway facilities. The new underground station will be positioned roughly under the location of the current terminal building with the tracks running in a northwest-southeast direction. The rebuilt station will be connected with the new high speed line heading west to Mannheim and east to Ulm, offering substantial time savings for both long-distance and regional services. New tunnels will be built to connect the new station with the existing rail lines just outside the city centre.Currently a dead end, the new station will have through lines and a direct connection to the airport and trade fair and exhibition centre along a 30 km new line to Wendlingen. At the airport there will be a new station for main line services and a connecting curve to the existing S-Bahn station so that trains to Singen and Zürich can be re-routed via the airport and a new connection at Rohr.Altogether, Stuttgart 21 and the high speed line to Wendlingen will require some 50 km of tunnels: 800 m of a through railway line, including the new central railway station (lot PFA 1.1), 2 x 9.5 km Filder tunnel, linking the central railway station with the airport and the Wendlingen-Ulm HSL (lot PFA 1.2), 3.7 km airport tunnels, including two-track high speed train station platform located in two underground tunnel tubes, and a vertical shaft to the above-ground terminal (lot PFA 1.3),section to Wendlingen of the Stuttgart-Ulm-Munich HSL (lot PFA 1.4), 2 x 3.2 km Feuerbach tunnel, linking the Mannheim-Stuttgart HSL to the new Stuttgart central station and 2 x 3.8 km Bad Cannstatt tunnel connecting to the maintenance station and the Nuremberg-bound line in Rems Valley (lot PFA 1.5), 2 x 5.7 km Obertuerkheim tunnel, 2 x 913 m Untertuerkheim tunnel and maintenance station (lot PFA 1.6). See pictures here. Visit www.bung-ag.de/wEnglisch/referenzen/tunnel-stuttgart21.php From left to right, Wolfgang Schuster, mayor of Stuttgart, Guenther Oettinger, president of Baden Wuertemberg, Wolfgang Tiefensee, federal minister of transport, Hartmut Mehdorn, CEO of DB, and Bernd Steinacher, director of the Greater Stuttgart region Wendlingen-Ulm high speed lineConcurrently with Stuttgart 21, the 58 km high speed line between Wendlingen and Ulm will be upgraded. Another aspect of the project is a freight train link in Wendlingen and widening of the bridge over the Danube in Ulm.The new underground rail line heading southeast out of Stuttgart's future central station will join the new high speed rail line to Ulm beyond the city limits. The new rail line will supplement the existing conventional rail line to Ulm and further east to Munich, Salzburg and Vienna. It will consist of four major twin bored tunnels and five shorter tunnels to provide a relatively straight and low gradient route through the rugged Schwabian Alps: Albworland tunnel (2 x 7.9 km), Weilheim tunnel (225 m), Bossler tunnel (2 x 8.7 km), Steinbuehl tunnel (2 x 4.7 km), Autobahn A8 (378 m), Widderstall (963 m), AS Merklingen (424 m), Imberg (499 m) and Albabstieg tunnel (2 x 5.9 km)FinancingCosts for Stuttgart 21 and the Stuttgart-Wendlingen high speed section are estimated at approximately EUR2.8 billion. Deutsche Bahn will contribute EUR1,115 million to the project. DB, which will be responsible for the maintenance of the existing network under the service level and funding agreement, will spend EUR300 million of the allocated funds for the maintenance of the existing network. The Land of Baden Wuerttemberg and its partners guarantee a EUR685 million financing. Additional funds of nearly EUR200 million will be made available under the federal railway infrastructure development Act. The federal government will jointly finance the Stuttgart 21 project up to EUR500 million and apply for EU funding. Possible cost increases up to a maximum of EUR1 billion will be borne by DB (EUR220 million), the government of Baden Wuerttemberg (EUR780 million). Should costs increase by over EUR1 billion, DB and the federal state will each bear up to EUR160 million. In case of cost overruns above this amount, DB and the federal state will initiate talks on the matter. Furthermore, DB, the federal state, the city and the Greater Stuttgart region agree to appoint a joint steering committee responsible for auditing and cost control.Costs for the new Wendlingen-Ulm high speed line are estimated at approx. EUR2 billion. The federal state of Baden Wuerttemberg agreed to provide a lump sum of EUR950 million from 2010 to 2016, including planning costs. The federal government agreed to guarantee follow-up financing beginning in 2016 and to assume the construction cost risk. The federal government applied for European Union TEN financial assistance for the new line. 46/07.