Schedule for civil engineering works

Six weeks after the official start of construction, the schedule for the civil engineering work on the three construction sites has been sketched out.

Site DESY-Bahrenfeld
The part of the Lise Meitner Park that pertains to the construction site is currently being brought to the level required for the later European XFEL site. Around one third of 120 000 cubic metres of soils have already been removed. In parallel, preparations are ongoing for the construction of the building pit, which will be up to 34 metres deep and is to be completed by March 2010. The large underground building for the injector complex will then be realized until December 2012. The tunnel boring machine will arrive here in July 2011, and the tunnel for the linear accelerator will be linked to the injector building. The modulator hall and the access halls above ground will be erected between June 2011 and October 2012.

Site Osdorfer Born
The construction site Osdorfer Born is currently being set up and fenced in. Before removal of the soil for the building pit can begin in June 2009, the access roads to the site have to be prepared to accommodate the lorry traffic. Tunnel boring between Osdorfer Born and DESY-Bahrenfeld will take place from May 2010 to June 2011, with supplies provided via the Schenefeld building pit. The underground switchyard hall will be constructed between June 2011 and October 2012, followed by the access hall above ground from November 2012 to May 2013.

Site Schenefeld
With its surface area of 150 000 square metres, seven building pits and the starting shafts for two tunnel boring machines, the site Schenefeld is the largest of the three construction sites. Accordingly, setting up the sophisticated infrastructure will last until the end of March 2009. From April 2009 to August 2010, the building pit for the experiment hall – which will be 14 metres deep with an area of 4500 square metres – will be constructed in parallel with the other six building pits, followed by the underground shafts and halls. The main building and the surface halls will be realized between October 2012 and November 2013.

Tunnel construction
The tunnel complex comprises the 2.1-kilometre-long main tunnel and the “fan” with the five undulator and photon sections. The tunnels have a total length of 5777 metres and will be bored starting from the construction site Schenefeld. To this end, two tunnel boring machines with different diameters will be in action from March 2010 to June 2011. The boring machine for the three larger tunnel sections (with an inner diameter of 5.30 metres) will progress in direction of the construction site DESY-Bahrenfeld, where it will arrive in the injector hall in June 2011. The boring machine for the five 4.60-metre tunnels will start excavating each of them in turn from the building pit of the experiment hall.