The Karlsruhe combined solution: Poster Party in October 2014

The Poster Party for the tunnel construction work under Karlsruhe’s Kaiserstraße was held on the afternoon of Saturday 25 October 2014 in glorious sunshine.

The festivities were carried out together with Mr Uwe Konrath, CEO of Karlsruhe Schieneninfrastrukturgesellschaft (KASIG) [railway infrastructure company], Dr Alexander Pischon, CEO of Verkhersbetriebe Karlsruhe [transport company], Mr Michael Odenwald, State Secretary at the German Federal Transport Ministry, Dr Gisela Splett, State Secretary at the German National Transport Ministry, Dr Frank Mentrup, Mayor of the City of Karlsruhe and also board chairman at KASIG, Mr Josef Arnold, CEO of BeMo Tunnelling GmbH, a leading construction company in the tunnel boring sector, and Dr Marting Herrenknecht, board chairman at the Herrenknecht company.

The festivities were also attended by two former mayors of the City of Karlsruhe, Mr Heinz Fenrich and Dr Gerhard Saller.

After the addresses and the ecumenical ceremony, the tunnel was christened underground - this was then broadcast live in the party tent. The tunnel boring machine was christened “Giulia” by the tunnel a patron, Ms Gerlinde Hämmerle, a former member of German Parliament and district president from Karlsruhe, and a former citizen of the City of Karlsruhe.

A quick snack was then offered to finish off the ceremony.

Some participants then also had the opportunity to go underground to view the excavation starting point for the tunnel boring process or the excavation point for the future underground Durlacher Tor stop including the tunnel boring machine that has been constructed for this.

As a Karlsruhe combination solution engineering company, KREBS+KIEFER, in partnership with Zerna Baumanagement, has been in charge of supervising the construction measures since 2010. Construction of the metropolitan railway tunnel, with the southern branch headed towards Ettlinger Straße, is scheduled to start at the end of 2018.