Construction of a new district heating pipe in Frankfurt

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Netzdienste Rhein-Main GmbH (NRM), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mainova AG, planned the construction of a DN 500 district heating connection pipeline with a total length of 3.2 km, starting from the Niederrad network, continuing through a newly constructed culvert under the river Main to the West CHP plant and from there to the CHP plant at the Frankfurt trade fair. By networking the combined heat and power plants, they can be utilised more efficiently and flexibly, which leads to increased efficiency of the district heating network and enables greater use of carbon-neutral heat from the Nordweststadt waste-to-energy plant, which is also connected. Overall, this has led to considerable savings in CO² emissions.

KOCKS ENGINEERS’ task was to plan the engineering structures and technical equipment, to prepare the structural design of the culvert structures, to carry out the preliminary EIA assessment and the construction supervision.

In order to connect the Niederrad CHP plant with the West CHP plant and from there to the CHP plant at the trade fair, the district heating route had to overcome some special challenges. One section of the route ran under the river Main and another under the railway apron of Frankfurt Central Station, where 32 tracks had to be crossed. In other sections, the route was laid partly above ground as an overhead line and partly underground.

In order to lay the lines under the Main and the track apron, supply tunnels were built at a depth of 6 m under the track apron and 10 m under the riverbed of the Main; these tunnels had a diameter of 2.50 m. Mechanised tunnelling methods were used to lay the underground lines.

A very extensive monitoring programme was required for the crossing of the 32 tracks of the track apron of Frankfurt Central Station; all tracks were continuously surveyed using automatic total stations. During the entire construction project, four tachymeters checked measuring points placed at the sleepers in all three coordinate directions at regular 20-minute intervals. The recorded data was made available in real time via an internet-based platform that could be permanently viewed by all those involved.

In addition to the underground culvert structures, pipe bridges were also required to cross roads and railway tracks. The acceptance of the prefabricated steel components was carried out by a welding engineer from KOCKS ENGINEERS on site at the plant in Poland.

Client
Mainova AG / Netzdienste Rhein-Main GmbH
Project Manager
Dipl.-Ing. Michael Brinkmann; Dipl.-Ing. Amel Kurtovic
Services
  • Design of civil engineering structures  HOAI* Phases 1-9
  • Structural design HOAI Phases 1-6
  • Technical equipment HOAI Phases 1-9
  • Preliminary EIA assessment
  • On-site construction supervision

*HOAI=The fee schedule for architects and engineers in Germany