The Saverne Tunnel (french: Tunnel de Saverne), also known as the Ernolsheim-lès-Saverne Tunnel (french: Tunnel d'Ernolsheim-lès-Saverne), is a twin-bore ,

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...

tunnel in western

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It carries the LGV Est line of France's

TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...

high-speed rail network through the narrowest part of the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

mountain range, beneath

Mont Saint-Michel Mont-Saint-Michel (; Norman: ''Mont Saint Miché''; ) is a tidal island and mainland commune in Normandy, France. The island lies approximately off the country's north-western coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches and is ...

and adjacent to the Saverne Pass. The tunnel consists of two bores, containing one rail track each, that are connected by passageways every . The LGV Est crosses the Haspelbaechel viaduct near the western end of the tunnel. The tunnel was excavated by a tunnel boring machine between November 2011 and February 2013. Civil engineering work on the tunnel ended in April 2014 and it opened with the rest of the second phase of the LGV Est on 3 July 2016. The total cost of the tunnel was approximately €200 million.

Background

The Saverne Tunnel was constructed as part of the second phase of the ''LGV Est européenne'' (often shortened to ''LGV Est''). to connect

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

—the principal city of the

Grand Est Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten; Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administrat ...

region and home to several European institutions, including the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

. The first phase across of relatively flat land from Vaires-sur-Marne (near Paris) to Baudrecourt (near

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

and Nancy) opened in 2007. The second phase traverses of rougher terrain from Baudrecourt to Vendenheim (near Strasbourg). Opened in 2016, it further reduced travel time between Paris and Strasbourg from 2h20min to 1h50min and reduced travel time from

Luxembourg City Luxembourg ( lb, Lëtzebuerg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City ( lb, Stad Lëtzebuerg, link=no or ; french: Ville de Luxembourg, link=no; german: Stadt Luxemburg, link=no or ), is the capital city of the Lu ...

to Strasbourg from 2h10min to 1h25min. The Saverne Tunnel crosses the northern

at its narrowest point and is adjacent to the Saverne Pass, which already contains the

A4 autoroute The A4 Autoroute, also known as autoroute de l'Est (), is a French ''Controlled-access highway, autoroute'' that travels between the cities of Paris and Strasbourg. It forms parts of European routes European route E25, E25 and European route E5 ...

, Departmental Route 219, and remnants of an ancient Roman road. The line was originally built for Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), which owned and operated the infrastructure of the French national railway network. In a government restructuring of the French railroad network, RFF was merged into

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

on 1 January 2015 and is now a subdivision of SNCF known as ''SNCF Réseau''.

Construction

The tunnel was part of the Lot 47 segment of the LGV Est for the contracting and construction. Lot 47 consisted of the Saverne Tunnel, the adjacent Haspelbaechel viaduct, and an additional of the LGV line through the communes of Danne-et-Quatre-Vents in

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

and

Eckartswiller Eckartswiller (; ) is a commune, in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. See also * Communes of the Bas-Rhin department The following is a list of the 514 communes of the Bas-Rhin department of France. The commun ...

Saint-Jean-Saverne Saint-Jean-Saverne (; ; Alsatian: ''Sànt Johànn'') is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Population See also * Communes of the Bas-Rhin department The following is a list of the 514 communes of the ...

, and

Ernolsheim-lès-Saverne Ernolsheim-lès-Saverne () is a commune, in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. See also * Communes of the Bas-Rhin department The following is a list of the 514 communes of the Bas-Rhin department of France. The ...

. In September 2010, RFF awarded a €184.3 million design-build contract for Lot 47 to a consortium of 13 companies, led by . The Saverne Tunnel was built by

Spie Batignolles Spie Batignolles is a French construction company based in Neuilly-sur-Seine. The company provides building and infrastructure construction in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland. Company history Ernest Goüin fou ...

and Dodin Campenon-Bernard, at a cost of approximately €200 million. Tunnelier (Tunnel de Saverne) 2

The two bores of the Saverne Tunnel were excavated with a , tunnel boring machine (TBM), manufactured by

Herrenknecht Herrenknecht AG is a German company that manufactures tunnel boring machines, headquartered in Allmannsweier, Schwanau, Baden-Württemberg. It is the worldwide market leader for heavy tunnel boring machines. Roughly two-thirds of its 5,000 employ ...

. The TBM was used to excavate of the tunnel, the remainder consisting of false tunnel constructed at both ends. The TBM was christened ''Charlotte''—in honor of a girl from a nearby village—in a ceremony on 25 October 2011. It began excavation of the first bore on 10 November 2011 from the eastern side of Mont Saint-Michel and completed the first bore over a month ahead of schedule on 19 June 2012. For the first bore, 1932 rings were installed, using 15,456 precast concrete lining segments (8 per ring). The TBM excavated of earth at an average speed of per day. Excavation of the second bore began on 26 September 2012 and finished on 25 February 2013. The of earth excavated during tunneling was used to construct embankments in nearby sections of the LGV Est line. In total, 30,960 precast concrete lining segments were used. Concreting of the final interconnecting passage was completed on 24 June 2013, marking the end of construction of the tunnel walls. On 14 April 2014, civil engineering work on the tunnel was completed, but railroad signaling and equipment still needed to be installed. Service on the LGV Est line was originally scheduled to begin on 3 April 2016; however, a fatal accident that occurred elsewhere on the new line in November 2015 during commissioning tests delayed the opening of the line until 3 July 2016.

Characteristics

Vue surélevée de la sortie ouest du tunnel

The tunnel lies beneath

, beside the

Col de Saverne The Col de Saverne (Pass of Saverne or Saverne Pass, ) is a natural pass in the north of the Vosges mountains, near Saverne, which permits travel between the départements of Bas-Rhin and Moselle, and therefore between Alsace and Lorraine. Transp ...

, and within the Northern Vosges Regional Nature Park, a

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively ...

site. It is located close to the border with the department of

and within three communes of the

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

. The tunnel is part of the LGV Est high-speed rail line, which will connect Paris with Strasbourg. The line is also a part of the Main line for Europe trans-European high-speed rail line from Paris to

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. The tunnel is in length and consists of two bores, each carrying one rail line flanked by a maintenance walkway and an emergency evacuation walkway. The two bores are connected every by an interconnecting passage. The tunnel has been built for a maximum speed of — in commercial operation. It will be remotely monitored from the SNCF Réseau command center at

Pagny-sur-Moselle Pagny-sur-Moselle (, literally ''Pagny on Moselle'') is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France. See also * Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department * Parc naturel régional de Lorraine Lorraine Regional Na ...

. Adjacent to the western portal, the LGV Est traverses the Haspelbaechel viaduct, which travels up to above the Haspelbaechel valley.

References

External links

*
LGV Est
(official website)
LGV Est Lot 47
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924004745/http://lgvest-lot47.com/ , date=24 September 2017 website for the section of the LGV Est which includes the Saverne Tunnel Railway tunnels in France Transport in Grand Est Tunnels completed in 2016