page_title: Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway / Ebensfeld–Erfurt new line / Construction
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: NBS Ebensfeld–Erfurt, Lückenschlussfeier am Tunnel Müß
context_page_description: The Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway is a 191 km-long German high-speed railway, between Nuremberg and Erfurt. The line is listed in the Germany's federal transport plan as Verkehrsprojekt Deutsche Einheit Nr. 8.1 and is a section of the high-speed route between Berlin and Munich and a section of the line connecting Italy and Scandinavia in the European Union's Trans-European Rail network. It consists of an upgraded line between Nuremberg and Ebensfeld and a new line between Ebensfeld and Erfurt. The journey time between Erfurt and Nuremberg will be reduced to approximately one hour and 20 minutes after completion.
  The planning began in 1991 and construction started in April 1996. Three years later construction was stopped by the new SPD-Green coalition government formed after the 1998 election and only recommenced in 2002. The new line was opened at the timetable change on 10 December 2017. The timing of the final commissioning of the upgraded section is still uncertain.
context_section_description: With the ceremonial foundation of a bridge of the Rudisleben–Kirchheim state road over the future Eischleben relief loops, work on the new and upgraded line began on 16 April 1996. At the same time, the construction of the A71 (VDE Project No. 16) commenced. The first groundbreaking was carried out by the Federal Minister of Transport, Matthias Wissmann, the Thuringian Minister President, Bernhard Vogel and the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, Otto Wiesheu, who gave speeches despite loud protests by environmentalists. Among the guests was Heinz Dürr, the head of DB at that time.
  The construction work concentrated first on the 23 kilometre-long section "bundled" with the A 71 between Erfurt and Arnstadt. Construction of the almost 37 kilometre-long section between Erfurt and Ilmenau began in April 1996 and was almost completed in 2005. These included the Augustaburg, Behringen and Sandberg tunnels as well as the 1,100 metre-long Gera Viaduct at Ichtershausen and the 570 metre-long Wümbach Viaduct.
  At the beginning of December 1998, a newspaper reported that the Federal Ministry of Transport had issued an order to stop work on the southern part of the new line so that the work program could be examined. The northern section that was being built along with the A 71 was not affected. After the Federal Ministry of Transport initially stopped pre-construction activities in July 1999 as a result of tight budgets, some work, mainly consisting of pre-construction work, was carried out in 2003 and 2004.
  The construction of the approximately seven kilometre-long section integrating the new line into the Erfurt node began in 2001. In 2005, work started on the Stelzen intermediate access tunnel to the Bleßberg tunnel and approximately 20 kilometres of access roads were built in the Thuringian Forest. The first construction phase and the associated platforms were commissioned at Erfurt station in November 2005. At Coburg, work commenced at the end of 2005 on the Itz Viaduct, the neighbouring construction of the shell of the 221 metre-long tunnel of the Dörfles-Esbach connecting curve and a road crossing.
  The project has been supervised and managed by DB ProjektBau since 2003. From 2000 to 2002, the project was managed by DB Projektverkehrbau, the planning company of Bahnbau Deutsche Einheit.
  Construction began on the Grümpen Viaduct, including a 270-metre-long arch, in June 2006. This was followed by the commencement of the Froschgrundsee bridge with the same span in the autumn. At the end of 2006, contracts were awarded for the Truckenthal and Pöpelholz viaducts. In addition, construction of a two kilometre-long section of line connecting the Itz Viaduct towards Erfurt and the 4300 metre-long Bleßberg tunnel commenced. On 30 March 2008, the work on the Bleßberg tunnel lead to the discovery of a large limestone cave, the Bleiberberg cave.
  Preparatory work started on the construction of the Ilm Viaduct in April/May 2007. At the end of May 2007, Deutsche Bahn issued a European-wide advertisement for the construction of a one-kilometre section of the Tragberg Tunnel and the construction of the Füllbach Bridge began. In the Coburg area, construction had been under way since September 2007 near Grub am Forst and Dörfles-Esbach, as well as the Froschgrundsee and Pöpelholz viaducts.
  Work on the Müß Tunnel commenced on 29 February 2008. At the beginning of April 2008, Deutsche Bahn called tenders for the construction of the Masserberg, Rehberg, Kulch and Lichtenholz tunnels and the Dunkel, Reh and Mühlbach viaducts in September and November 2008 respectively. By the end of 2008, all major civil engineering projects and the construction of all "construction time-determining civil engineering works" would be awarded. At the end of January 2009, the DB advertised tenders for the section from track-kilometre 15.8 to 18.0 (near Coburg) and the first 1.8 kilometre of the Coburg southern connection, each including one tunnel. The invitation to tender for the integration of the line into the Erfurt node followed in July 2009. This was to be car
caption: End of the Müß tunnel on 9 September 2016
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