ICE Nuremberg-Ingolstadt - Sealing of Construction Joints

The new InterCity Express rail route from Nuremberg to Ingolstadt will be completed right in time for the Football World Cup. Thanks to the direct line layout and speeds over 300 km/h the journey time between Nuremberg and Munich will be reduced by about 30 minutes to just over 1 hour. Nine tunnels altogether with a total length of 27 kilometers have been built over the 89 km long rail route, including six tunnels using the tunnel driving method and three tunnels using the cut-and-cover method. Injection tubes were installed in the construction joints during the tunnel construction. These were injected with PU Injection Resin WEBAC_® 1405 tested in accordance with ZTV-Ing and RiLi SIB upon completion of the construction work.
In some areas of the construction joints, rock pockets were noticed during the construction which were successfully filled and sealed. The construction joints were then patched in order to prevent the PU Injection Resin WEBAC_® 1405 from flowing out of the area of these weak points in an uncontrolled manner. Great demands were made on the patching material. As any subsequent removal of the material would be very time-consuming and costintensive, it must withstand the enormous pull caused by trains passing by at over 300 km/h.
This requires an extremely high adhesive tensile strength also on damp and wet surfaces. The high-grade Epoxy Putty WEBAC_® 4525 which is characterized by its high adhesive tensile strength of over 5 N/mm² fulfills this requirement. Thanks to its ductile nature WEBAC_® 4525 proved to be the ideal patching material not only in terms of technical properties but also regarding its user-friendliness. WEBAC PU Injection Foam Resin and PU Injection Resin WEBAC_® 1405 were used for crack repairs in accordance with ZTV-Ing. The injection work on the tunnels of the new rail route was successfully completed by the end of 2005. The route will be opened for ICE railway services in June 2006 – on schedule for the Football World Cup. We wish all football fans a good trip and many goals.