Large Infrastructure Projects – The Challenging Road to an Optimal Design

As can be seen from several other executed projects, almost all major infrastructure projects in Germany usually extend over many years, from work stage 1, strategic and project definition, to work stage 9, project end. On the railway line 5600 between Munich East and Mühldorf am Inn, the Schwillach embankment in planning approval section 1.2, with the two engineering structures, EÜ Dorfstraße and EÜ Schwillach, is one of the largest earth structures and thus forms the Achilles tendon in German Railway major project “ABS 38” in southern Germany. In this article, we report on the manifold engineering challenges of the design planning of an object, across all stages, how the optimal solution cannot be found directly at the beginning of a project in work stage 2, preliminary planning, but can only be found during the design planning through iterative steps and different influences, dependencies and boundary conditions. Maintaining train operation or building under rolling wheels is particularly important for a single-track railway line, which can make planning and execution even more complicated.