Amprion awards engineering contracts for 1,300km underground cabling

German TSO Amprion has awarded civil engineering contracts for more than 1,300km of underground cable route.

The engineering contracts, awarded by Amprion for the direct current projects Corridor B and Rhein-Main-Link, were concluded with three consortia of 12 companies. Financial details have not been released.

The extensive civil engineering services for the Corridor B and Rhein-Main-Link projects were bundled and put out to tender for the first time in a joint procurement programme. The aim, says the TSO, is to secure important external resources for civil engineering on the market in the early project phase of both projects. In this way, Amprion prevents cost increases and minimises project risks.

Commenting in a release was Amprion’s CFO Peter Rüth: “The innovative procurement programme is part of our strategy to secure capacity and creates long-term planning security for us and our partners.

“This allows us to optimise planning and approval at an early stage and organize construction in the best possible way. This helps us to push ahead with major energy transition projects on time and on budget.”

According to Amprion in a release, with high transmission capacity, the Amprion Corridor B and Rhein-Main-Link projects are expected to play an important role in achieving German and European climate targets.

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Company collaboration

Various companies joined forces to submit bids to Amprion for the engineering contracts.

Eiffage Infra-Bau and DeRomein were jointly awarded the contract for the civil engineering services in the Rhein-Main-Link project.

The companies Max Streicher and Leonhard Weiss were awarded the contract for the work on the southern section of Corridor B. The civil engineering work for the northern section of the project will be carried out jointly by Johann Bunte, Depenbrock Bau, Anton Meyer, Bernhard Heckmann, Knoll, Reinhard Rohrbau, Hölscher Wasserbau and Epping Rohrvortrieb.

In order to design the contract with the partners in the best possible way, Amprion developed an approximately 60km-long reference route.

This enabled the companies to better assess the structural implementation of the two underground cable projects, calculate reference costs on this basis and submit their bids. The International Construction Project Management Association (ICPMA) presented the contract model with an award in New York in June 2024.

Corridor B

Corridor B comprises pipeline construction projects 48 (Heide/West – Polsum) and 49 (Wilhelmshaven – Hamm) from the Federal Requirements Plan Act (Bundesbedarfsplangesetz).

From the beginning of the 2030s, the extra-high-voltage direct current connection is expected to transmit wind power from Schleswig-Holstein and northern Lower Saxony to North Rhine-Westphalia. According to Amprion, the legislator has provided an additional empty conduit system for each of the two projects, bringing the total transmission capacity to 8GW of electrical power, corresponding to the energy requirements of around eight million people.

Corridor B affects four federal states: Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Bremen and North Rhine-Westphalia.

One special feature, states Amprion, is crucial for the planning: the project consists of two projects that intersect roughly in the middle, making it possible to run the underground cables partially parallel in a main route.

Between Heide/West and Polsum, Corridor B will cross the Elbe in the area of Wewelsfleth in Schleswig-Holstein and Wischhafen in Lower Saxony. The ElbB tunnel is being built for this purpose and represents a separate approval section within the major Corridor B project.

ElbB will be over 5,000 meters long and have an inner diameter of four meters. The tunnel will be built from more than 20,000 reinforced concrete parts, otherwise known as segments, at a depth of around 20 meters. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2026 and is expected to take approximately 4.5 years.

Rhein-Main-Link

The Rhein-Main-Link project, one of the central grid expansion projects of the energy transition states the TSO, consists of a high-performance energy corridor intended to strengthen the Rhine-Main economic region from 2033 and relieve the transmission grid as a bypass to the existing grid.

The project bundles four direct current underground cable projects to transport up to 8GW of offshore wind energy from Lower Saxony to Hesse.

The four projects include:

• Project No. 82 BBPlG (DC34): Ovelgönne/Rastede/Wiefelstede/Westerstede – Bürstadt
• Project No. 82a BBPlG (DC35): Ovelgönne/Rastede/Wiefelstede/Westerstede – Hofheim am Taunus
• Project No. 82b BBPlG (NOR-x-4/NOR-16-3): part of Ovelgönne/Rastede/Wiefelstede/Westerstede – Kriftel
• Project No. 82c BBPlG (NOR-x-8/NOR-16-5): part of Ovelgönne/Rastede/Wiefelstede/Westerstede – Bürstadt/Biblis/Groß-Rohrheim/Gernsheim/Biebesheim am Rhein

Since all projects are geographically close together, states Amprion, they plan to implement them together as the Rhein-Main Link.

According to Amprion, the bundling will mean less interference with nature and the landscape, as less space is used. By carrying out planning, approval and construction together, the time and effort can also be saved.

Said Dr Hendrik Neumann, CTO of Amprion: “All in all, both underground cable connections will ensure that green electricity can be transported safely for millions of households and industry in the future. Today’s award is an important step in this direction.”