Gateway Gardens
The central position and optimum traffic connections are just two of the features which characterize the new Gateway Gardens district in Frankfurt am Main, since it is situated at one of the most important traffic junctions in Europe. On the site of the former American housing area Gateway Gardens, in direct proximity to Frankfurt airport, a new quarter with office buildings, hotel, congress centre and retail shops is to be built. An own light railway station „Gateway Gardens“ will connect the highly attractive area with the local public transport system. Wayss & Freytag Ingenieurbau, Area Centre, is going to build the centerpiece of the light railway section, an approx. 2 km long double track tunnel. This tunnel runs below the A5 motorway Frankfurt – Darmstadt as well as the entire Gateway Gardens area. DB Netz AG (German Railway) is the client of this infrastructure project.
Head of the Area Thomas Fiedler explained: „We will build the tunnel in the open construction method. The sheeting of the construction pit is to be carried out with bored piles, soldier pile walls and sheet pile walls. The tunnel under the motorway will be carried out in the top-down method. The cross-section of the tunnel is approx. 11 m wide and 6 m high. For the tunnel construction approx. 900,000 m³ earth have to be moved and 180,000 m³ concrete poured.“ The engineers of Area Centre are currently working on the largest tunnel in metropolis on the River Main: the Europagarten Tunnel.
