Vienna is investing in the expansion of its public transportation system and is building a new metro section. With the expansion of the metro network, the city of Vienna is responding to a rising population. More than two million people are expected to live in the capital by 2030. According to the city, the investment in the line extensions will create and secure around 30,000 jobs.
On behalf of Wiener Linien, the operator of the Vienna metro, a joint venture is building the extension of Metro Line 2 from Vienna City Hall to the south. For the tunnel construction under the city center an EPB Shield (Earth Pressure Balance Shield) tunnel boring machine is deployed for this project.
The Herrenknecht EPB Shield for the Austrian capital has a diameter of 6,840 millimetres, a length of around 120 meters and weighs a total of around 1,200 tons. For the predominantly clayey geology that is expected according to the preliminary investigations, an EPB Shield is the optimal machine type.
The excavation startet in September 2024 at the future Matzleinsdorfer Platz station, from where the machine will drive 2.1 kilometers of tunnel northwards to below Augustinplatz. The machine will then be pulled back through the bored tunnel, which is lined with precast concrete segments, in order to drive the parallel tube from Matzleinsdorfer Platz.
In March 2025, after 1.262 meters of tunnelling and 699 segment rings built, it reached its third stage destination in Vienna's fifth district, under Pilgramgasse.
