Freight Traffic tunnel under runway 06-24 Schiphol

Project description

To connect the new freight area with the center of Schiphol, a tunnel was built. The tunnel has a width of 13-m and a total length of 850-m, with an enclosed tunnel length of 550-m. The tunnel crosses the runway and two taxi-ways. At the northern entrance of the tunnel, a connection with an existing tunnel, running perpendicular, had to be constructed.
The tunnel crosses the runway and two taxi-ways.  At the northern entrance of the tunnel, a connection with an existing tunnel, running perpendicular, had to be constructed.  In order to reduce the time in which the runway 06-24 is not in use, in relation to construction costs, a number of construction methods were evaluated. Amongst these different methods, are the cut & cover method, an immersed tunnel, a bored tunnel, and the “wall roof” method.
The method that appeared to be the most suitable was the “wall roof” method. This is a method in which the walls and the roof of the tunnel are constructed first in order to restore the runway as soon as possible; after this, the soil in the tunnel is excavated and the base slab of the tunnel is constructed. The walls are made up of steel tubes with sheet-piles in between (combi-wall). The roof is made with pre-stressed prefabricated beams and the base slab is made up of reinforced in-situ concrete.