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Projects/Infrastructure/Tyrol, Austria
Delivered · 202547.267°N / 11.392°E
P-2018-094

Brenner Base — North Approach, Tube T-3

22.4 km twin-bore alpine tunnel beneath the Stubai range. Hextal led the TBM consortium and the cross-passage civils. Excavated material reused as aggregate within a 40 km radius — net-positive on embedded carbon vs. EN 16627 baseline.

What we did

Hextal served as the lead civil engineering contractor, responsible for all structural design, ground engineering, materials procurement and on-site construction management. Our scope encompassed full lifecycle delivery from mobilisation through commissioning, with integrated environmental monitoring and stakeholder coordination throughout.

Contract value€2.8B
LocationTyrol, Austria, AT
CategoryInfrastructure / Tunnel
StatusDelivered · 2025
Duration4.5 years
ClientBBT Brenner Basistunnel SE
ContractorHextal Group / JV Partner

Every project begins with a problem no one has solved before.

The challenge

The geological conditions presented extreme variability, with fault zones, aquifer intersections and squeezing ground all encountered within a single drive. Conventional drill-and-blast was ruled out early due to surface settlement constraints in an environmentally sensitive alpine corridor. Schedule pressure from the European Commission added a further layer of complexity, with milestone payments tied to bore-through dates that left no room for delay.

The solution

Hextal deployed a variable-density TBM with real-time ground-probing radar, allowing the machine to adapt cutterhead pressure and advance rate to geological conditions 200 metres ahead of the face. Cross-passage construction was parallelised using a modified New Austrian Tunnelling Method with fibre-reinforced shotcrete. The excavated material was processed on-site and reused as aggregate for the tunnel lining segments, eliminating 1.4 million truck movements from the alpine valleys.

§ 04 - Timeline
Five phases from first survey to handover.
Phase 01
Mobilisation
Q1 - Q2 Year 1
100% complete
Phase 02
Design
Q2 Year 1 - Q4 Year 1
100% complete
Phase 03
Procurement
Q3 Year 1 - Q2 Year 2
100% complete
Phase 04
Construction
Q1 Year 2 - Q3 Year 4
100% complete
Phase 05
Commissioning
Q4 Year 4 - Q2 Year 5
100% complete

Led by Ing. Matthias Koenig

The project team comprises 340 engineers, site supervisors and specialist subcontractors drawn from across the Hextal Group. Core disciplines include structural engineering, geotechnics, materials science, environmental management and digital delivery. The team operates from a dedicated site office with full BIM coordination capability.

Programme oversight is provided by the Group Executive Committee through quarterly stage-gate reviews. Health and safety performance is reported weekly to the Chief Operating Officer.

Meet the leadership team

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