Second trunk line: A bankruptcy, many experts - no one listened to them?

Created: 2022-08-02Updated: 2022-08-02, 21:55

By: Dirk Walter

Pioneering work in depth: A visualization of the main line station Hbf © DB

Munich – The state parliament has said goodbye to a two-month summer break, but the main route debacle awaits clarification.

How could the cost explosion and the time delay come about?

And this despite the fact that a host of experts is monitoring the construction project.

Munich - The main route will remain a hot topic in the fall, that's for sure.

The state parliament's transport committee is currently preparing a special session, confirms its chairman, FDP MP Sebastian Körber.

The list of questions is long.

The written questions that Körber submitted to the state parliament comprise almost 80 points.

Green MP Martin Runge, who has always been a fundamental critic of the project, also has probing questions.

And the Free Voters are stunned as to why they "as the government faction" only found out from the media that the Bavarian Ministry of Transport estimates that the second tube will cost 7.2 instead of 3.8 billion euros and will only be completed in 2037 instead of 2028.

They call the non-communication "nefarious" and call for a parliamentary building supervision commission - in order to ensure transparency in the future.

For Bavaria's Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter (CSU), it is clear that politics must now have "full controlling options".

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Second regular route in Munich - expert committees already existed in 2016

However, it would not be the first round of experts to be deployed.

Little is known about the construction of the main line, which for years has been accompanied by a whole squad of professors and experts, some of whom are well-known – in several regularly meeting circles.

Even before construction began in 2016, a group of experts set up by the then Transport Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) at the Supreme Building Authority, which also included representatives of the Southern Bavaria Motorway Directorate and the Bavarian Construction Industry Association, approved all the figures available at the time as "appropriate".

In October 2017, half a year after the start of construction, the Deutsche Bahn construction manager for the main line at the time set up a so-called committee of specialists.

Since then, five professors and an engineer with a doctorate, all of whom are experts in groundwater management and construction, geotechnics and ground freezing, have met every six months.

I cannot comment due to the contractual relationship with DB

Prof. Ziegler, spokesman for the specialist committee

Second trunk route in Munich - "Pioneering work in depth"

According to a statement by the specialists from April 2020, which is available to our newspaper, the aim is to “evaluate the construction concept in the sense of a second view” and “further advance the planning”.

The spokesman for the committee is Prof. Dr.-Ing.

Martin Ziegler from Aachen, who does not want to comment to the press "because of the existing contractual relationship with DB".

What is striking, however, is that the specialists in 2020 advocated planning changes that allegedly made construction extremely expensive: for example, the installation of a rescue tube that is to be driven through the earth parallel to the two driving tubes of the second trunk line;

as well as the integration of a station for the yet to be built subway line 9 under the main station.

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At a meeting of the transport committee in the state parliament in mid-July, Bavaria's rail boss Klaus-Dieter Josel spoke of difficult "pioneering work in depth" that caused the project to falter.

Two years ago it sounded very different.

In the specialists' statement dated April 26, 2020, signed by all six specialists, the changes were sold as "optimizations".

They lead "to a minimization of interventions in the urban area", increase "the performance of the stations" and bring "in some cases considerable simplifications in the construction process".

So were the experts wrong?

Maybe not just her.

In May 2019, two years after the start of construction, another body began its work: the so-called construction supervision.

This is a group of five experts appointed by the then Transport and Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU).

The committee meets regularly, most recently on April 7 of this year.

"So far, seven results have been presented, usually every three to six months," the Ministry of Transport announced.

Surprisingly, there is no exchange with the specialist committee

Second trunk route - Schreyer did not deny it

The experts must have received indications of the imbalances on the second main route.

As early as October 2020, according to information from the Ministry of Transport, our newspaper was published on the cover with the report "2.

Main route: Schedule shaky”, according to which the completion date is now 2032 (instead of 2028).

The then Transport Minister Kerstin Schreyer (CSU) did not deny it, but referred to the railways.

“She is in the process of determining the schedule.

After that, we'll have to see what that means."

Incidentally, the railways are still checking: they only want to present their own time and cost plan in October.

As the "Augsburger Allgemeine" reported, there are interim results.

In a letter dated September 25, 2020, DB stated that construction would end in 2034 and that costs would increase to 5.2 billion.

The information even reached Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), who, when asked by our newspaper, spoke of “conjectures” and “speculations”.

The Green MP Martin Runge is slowly losing track.

According to his information, there was also an "engineering community for the 2nd trunk line" consisting of specialist offices for individual construction lots.

In addition, a steering committee consisting of DB, the Ministry of Transport (federal and state) and the Federal Railway Authority meets regularly, as a Greens inquiry in the state parliament revealed.

The group met on May 12th.

Runge: "The question now is why none of these bodies sounded the alarm."