Federal Railway Authority
The groundwater management was expected to start in January 2013. On 25 June 2012, it was announced that a public hearing was required to consider Deutsche Bahn's proposal to double the groundwater withdrawal to 6.8 million cubic metres, delaying the construction work (according to media reports, to 2014). According to its own statements, Deutsche Bahn's planned to open excavation pits requiring less groundwater withdrawals in the spring of 2013 and thus comply with the planning approval decision (which stipulates lower withdrawal quantities). According to a media report, however, the Federal Railway Authority and the Stuttgart Regional Council assumed that the construction work would not begin before 2014. The Federal Railway Authority approved the increased groundwater abstraction on 22 September 2014.