Work on Dresden’s first accessible Elbe tunnel began in June 2019. This Elbe tunnel is to be accessible only to maintenance personnel from the client and user, DREWAG Netz GmbH. According to the client’s design, the 240-metre-long tunnel will be constructed using reinforced concrete pipes. The pipes have an outside diameter of 3.20 metres and shafts on each side of the tunnel. The clearance dimensions of the shaft structures are 6 × 10 × 18 metres and 5 × 6 × 18 metres.

Start
Work begins with a starter pit on Pieschener Allee. It is sunk to a depth of 22 metres using a starter pit structure. This requires full-depth ground replacement, because the existing ground is not capable of supporting the shaft sinking process. The site has been cleared by breaking up the surface and searching for explosive ordnance. Work is currently being carried out on ground replacement using a large rotary drilling rig. The massive starter shaft in in-situ concrete construction has a circumferential wall thickness of 1.5 m and external dimensions of 13 × 9 m.

The sinking process is carried out completely in (ground) water.
A 3 m thick underwater concrete layer will then be installed as a base slab. The structure will then be sufficiently sealed and heavy enough to drain the structure and carry out preparations for tunnelling. Work on the target structure on the opposite side of the Elbe is being carried out in the same way. Tunnelling can then commence by Eiffage Infra-Vortriebstechnik.