A new 48-inch steel casing had to be installed underneath the Rhine River with a low overburden of three meters. The pipe was planned to serve as conduit for a water pipeline (Ø 600mm) and twelve ducts for power and telecommunication cables. Before, a main for the drinking water supply of Worms had been located on the old Nibelungen Bridge. The culvert underneath the Rhine River became necessary, since the design of the new Rhine Bridge did not provide space for pipelines and ducts. The pipeline route runs under the Rhine riverbed at a maximum depth of up to ten meters.
The 464-meter-long culvert underneath the Rhine River was realized using the new Direct Pipe® method developed by Herrenknecht. The eleven-meter-long pipe sections were welded together on the jobsite. The trenchless pipe jacking and the excavation of the bore hole were carried out in one single step.
A Herrenknecht AVN1000CX was deployed for excavation in Worms. The Herrenknecht Pipe Thruster (HK250/500PT) provided the required force of max. 500 tonnes to smoothly push the pipe forward. Breakthrough occurred after best daily performances of up to 90 meters only 13 days after the beginning of the construction work on the opposite river bank – a successful world premiere for Direct Pipe®.
