Construction workers for the JV Arge Wesertunnel consisting of Hochtief/Philipp Holzmann/Ludwig Freytag/Heinrich Hecker/Martin Oetken cover the cutterhead of the 11.7m diameter Herrenknecht TBM following its successful breakthrough on the Weser Tunnel in Germany. Boring of the second twin tube of the highway tunnel was completed perfectly on line in November last year after a difficult nine month drive. The machine is now being readied for use on another milestone project for Germany, the 780m twin-tubes of the Herren Road Tunnel under the River Trave in Lübeck. The tunnel is Germany’s first Build Operate Transfer construction scheme. The Herrentunnel Lübeck JV of Hochtief/Bilfinger + Berger has started work on the $136M project and at the ground breaking ceremony Dr Hans-Peter Keitel, CEO of Hochtief, called for a law on private financing of long distance highways to be extended to include operating entire routes within Germany’s national long distance highway network. Keitel said “Private sector toll roads are the most efficient and cost-effective solution for all concerned, not just in terms of the economy as a whole. The experience in other European countries has shown a marked rise in the productivity of infrastructure facilities following privatisation, with a drop in cost to the users.”
