Mühlbach Bridge on ICE-Railway Line

Project: Mühlbach bridge on the new ICE railway line lilnking Nuremberg and Berlin

Owner: Deutsche Bahn AG (state railway)

Contractor: Alpine Deutschland AG, Niederlassung Halle-Leipzig

MEVA Systems: Hands-set formwork EcoAs, wall formwork Mammut,   beam formwork, climbing platform KLK 230, shoring system MEP

Formwork engineering: MEVA Schalungs-Systeme
GmbH, Munich branch



One Formwork Unit for 8 Column Dimensions

The Mühlbach bridge is one of many bridges and tunnels being built on the railway line that will link Germany's capital Berlin with Nuremberg. 

The bridge over the Mühlbach river spans 175 m and has a hollow carriage carrier with a width of 14.30 m. 

The contractor used the flexible, modular but very sturdy hand-set system EcoAs to pour the foundations for the four columns that support the bridge. Heavy duty wall formwork Mammut was employed for the abutment. 

Hollow bridge pylons tapering 70:1 

The bridge pylons measure up to 6.50 m by 3.50 m at the base. Once their height of 17,90 m is reached, they have taper at a rate of 70:1. Corners and indentations remain constant. Tapering so strongly, the pylons represented a considerable formwork challenge to the MEVA engineers. They came up with a special construction using the working platform KLK 230. Its unique feature was that the forming units could be contracted step for stap to accomodate the tapering size of the pylons. This proved the most cost-effective method, since only one set of forming units was required for the entire height of the pylon pour. 

Hollow pylon shafts and pylon heads

Inside their hollow shaft, the pylons have  pedestals. To form them, MEP shoring towers were placed inside and were extended as the pylons were poured higher. Finally, once the pylon head had to be poured, the shoring tower proved a welcome support.