Elbe tunnel in Hamburg, 1969-1975 and 1997-2003
Hamburg has been living perfectly well for almost a quarter of a century with
the Elbe Tunnel, for which HOCHTIEF had been responsible. It had been built
as three parallel highway tunnels using a complicated float-and-sink process
because it is made up of a large number of reinforced concrete elements, called
sunk casions.
These were built in dry docks and then floated out, towed one by one out
into the River Elbe, sunk in their prepared positions on the bed of the river,
and anchored securely. They then had to be joined together and the river water
pumped out.
This procedure was a major obstacle to shipping and it was mainly for that reason
that the Senate (the "State parliament" of the city-state of Hamburg) decided that
the fourth Elbe tunnel, which is now under construction, should be dug with a
tunneling machine known lovingly by the old-fashioned girl's name of "Trude".
HOCHTIEF once again has a key role in this project.
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