As part of a joint venture, Bauer has been contracted to carry out the specialist foundation engineering works on the tunnels and supporting walls for the new double-tracked bypass rail link between Hanau and Nantenbach in the Spessart region. The project is worth some €47m (£40m) to Bauer.
The roughly 7km-long new track will reduce noise pollution for local residents. The work also includes the building of new stations and the renovation of a number of other stations. The line will replace the existing route through the Schwarzkopf tunnel, which cannot be modernised for economic and technical reasons.
The work assigned to Bauer on the two contracted sections includes the installation of 53,000m2 of piled wall as well as 8km of anchors for the four new tunnel sections. One of the technical challenges of the project is the need to drill into hard rock. Several Bauer BG 28 and BG 40 rotary drilling rigs along with anchor drilling rigs will be deployed. At peak times up to 10 rigs will be operating simultaneously.
Chairman of the Bauer management board Professor Thomas Bauer said: "This is a great contract for us in our home market, and it is indeed our biggest contract in Germany to date. After having recently completed work on the large-scale Luise-Kiesselbach-Platz project in Munich, we have now once again secured a healthy utilsation of our capacities in Germany for the medium term."
BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH is scheduled to start work on the project at the end of the year. The work will take about four years to complete. Most of it will be carried out during 2014 and 2015.
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