Commissioning of the line is postponed to 2025
(ffm) Bad news for the construction of the U5 subway line to the Europaviertel: already before Christmas, the tunnel boring machine used had suffered damage. As it has now turned out, the repair of the machine leads to a delay of several months in the construction process of the subway line. The completion of the subway extension is therefore postponed from the previously planned year 2024 to 2025, according to transport department head Klaus Oesterling.
The first 240 meters of the line in the direction of Güterplatz could be driven to a depth of 22 meters, but at a slower speed than planned by the construction company. After the tunnel boring machine reached the area of the future Güterplatz station, the machine was stopped for an inspection. This revealed far excessive wear on the cutting wheel, with partial destruction of the excavation tools, making repair of the cutting wheel unavoidable. According to Ingo Kühn, managing director of the Stadtbahn Europaviertel Projektbaugesellschaft, the construction company said it would be necessary to create a sufficiently large space for the repair, secured against groundwater penetration, in which the repair could be carried out.
According to the Stadtbahn Europaviertel Projektbaugesellschaft, the causes of the unexpectedly high wear of the tunnel boring machine were unclear. On the part of the construction company it is pointed out that the complete analysis of the unexpectedly high wear can only be done with the complete inspection of the cutting wheel in the course of the renovation.
