ZÜBLIN and HOCHTIEF hand over M4 metro line in Copenhagen

• Safety at metro project top notch
• Well-managed schedules, quality and finances
• Impressive drone video shows new M4 metro line 

ZÜBLIN and HOCHTIEF began working on the metro extension to Nordhavn in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2014. The contract consisted of two 1.6 km and 1.8 km TBM tunnels below the city district of Østerbro as well as two metro stations (the underground Nordhavn Station and surface-level Orientkaj Station), in-situ cast bridges and ramps, a transfer tunnel, and a 40-metre deep rescue shaft.

ZÜBLIN and HOCHTIEF handed over the last part of the project to the client, Copenhagen metro operator Metroselskabet, thus finalising more than five years of demanding engineering work.

Safety was top notch at the metro project

Project Director Jan Skytte from ZÜBLIN Ground Engineering, together with Vice Project Director Friedrich Stiller from HOCHTIEF, accompanied the project from start to finish. They highlight several important aspects of the good collaboration: safe working environment, high execution quality and technical complexity, as well as effective project management.

“Our large joint focus on work environment and safety had a very positive effect. We had over 4,000 employees going through safety introductions and passed both 1,000 and 1,100 days without accidents. The working environment was a shared responsibility for everyone involved, and together with the client, we created a culture of safety among the employees and subcontractors. That is probably what we are most proud of,” the two project directors said.

Well-managed schedules, quality and finances

The complex project required ZÜBLIN and HOCHTIEF to get all the skills in play, from tunnel boring and various ground engineering works, such as sheet piles, pile drilling and ground anchors, to technically demanding concrete structures at Orientkaj Station. The 40-metre deep rescue shaft at Krauseparken was built in a very small space in a densely built-up area, and this also required extra effort.

Jan Skytte and Friedrich Stiller assess the current status with great satisfaction after a total of 1.5 million working hours at the construction site: “We kept the agreed time frames and budgets and continuously adapted our work to the unforeseen tasks we met along the way. The performance was optimised by using, among other things, large prefabricated elements in the station roof and concrete hardening with heating elements during the winter periods, The team also hit the Danish record of 56 metres of bored tunnel in just a day.”

Impressive drone video shows the new M4 metro line

ZÜBLIN and HOCHTIEF released a spectacular drone video showing how the new metro line cuts its way up from the ground at Nordhavn Station to end at the architectural Orientkaj Station. The video can be viewed on YouTube at https://youtu.be/UzPl2V_1M8s.