Construction of Engineering Structures Adjacent to Railway Infrastructure: Selected Example from Munich’s Second Urban Railway Line

Abstract

The paper presents three engineering structures built in the immediate vicinity of existing railway infrastructure on the western section of Munich’s second urban railway line. The section has been under construction since 2019 and lies alongside the tracks of the first line - Germany’s busiest urban railway - next to the international and regional lines leading to the main station, and by the marshalling yard tracks for freight traffic. To ensure minimal rail closures, address spatial constraints, and meet stringent requirements, the design and construction of the selected structures - an underpass, a noise-barrier bridge, and an access ramp - employed methods such as building the substructure beneath the tracks using auxiliary bridges, lateral launching of the superstructure over the tracks, the use of larger precast reinforced-concrete and prestressed-concrete (PC) elements, and employing sheet piles to secure the excavation as permanent (“lost”) formwork.