Drilling for Stuttgart 21 project’s 56km tunnels marks completion

A significant milestone was reached in the Stuttgart 21 project with the final tunneling breakthrough taking place in the city’s airport tunnel on September the 14^th.

Furthermore, the Stuttgart 21 project is led by Deutsche Bahn and aims at completely reorganizing the city’s rail node and vastly decreasing travel times through the construction of a series of new infrastructure.

More specifically, September 14’s breakthrough marked the completion of drilling for the project’s tunnels, which measure roughly 56 kilometers in total length and are mostly twin-bored, while track has already been laid in parts of them.

Other than its 16 tunnels and culvert tubes, the project features 44 bridges, four new stations and 57 kilometers of new railway tracks.

The network will be capable of accommodating train speeds of up to 250 km/h, significantly reducing travel times. For instance, the Ulm-Stuttgart airport current travel time of 1 hour and 35 minutes is expected to be reduced to just 30 minutes upon the project’s completion.

Stuttgart 21 gained approval in 2009 when a financial agreement was reached. Work on the project began the following year, and tunnelling started in late 2013.

As for the project’s budget and schedule, it was expected to be completed in 2019 while costing €4.8 billion. However, delivery is now scheduled for the end of 2025, while the total budget was estimated to be €9.15 billion in 2018.