The projects for the construction of a new underground rail line in the centre of the German capital and a link between the main station and the urban rail ring have a combined value of approximately €230m (£184m). Construction of the urban rail section will be carried out in a joint venture.
"The two orders underline our positioning as a specialist for intelligent civil engineering services in the area of mobility," said Bilfinger Berger executive board chairman Roland Koch.
The urban rail line is one of the largest transport infrastructure projects in Berlin. The new U5 line will link the Alexanderplatz with the main station and connect the Brandenburg Gate to the existing section of the U55. The project, on behalf of Berlin's transportation authority, comprises the construction of two tunnel bores approximately 1.6km in length along with work for a track-switching system and two new stations. The tunnels will be built using the shield driving method, which requires the use of a tunnel boring machine. The Museum Island station will be built using an underground excavation technique while the cut and cover method will be used for the construction of the Unter den Linden station.
The new stretch of the S 21 that will connect the main station to Berlin's ring line in a north-south direction will be built by a joint venture under the leadership of Bilfinger Berger, working on behalf of Deutsche Bahn. The work involves a trough structure and several tunnel sections using both the open construction and cut and cover methods. One of the technical challenges of the project is that the sections near the main station will be built beneath girder grids and connected to existing excavation pits with the help of pressurised air.
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