STRABAG to deliver extensive civil engineering services for grid expansion in support of energy transition in Germany
6 January 2025
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- STRABAG AG awarded new contract by TransnetBW to build section of SuedLink from Gerstungen to Breitungen in Thuringia
- German market leader in transportation infrastructures to realise power line projects worth more than € 1.1 billion for three transmission system operators
Vienna/Cologne, 7 January 2025 Building for the energy transition in Germany: At the end of 2024, STRABAG AG has been awarded a new major contract in the three-digit-million-euro range for the construction of a section of the planned SuedLink direct current underground power transmission line. The German subsidiary of STRABAG SE has been commissioned by grid operator TransnetBW to carry out the extensive civil engineering works for the 34.5-kilometre section of the transmission line from Gerstungen to Breitungen, south of Eisenach in the German state of Thuringia. With this latest award, STRABAG AG’s entities have acquired contracts worth a total of more than € 1.1 billion in the ongoing tenders for the SuedLink and SuedOstLink power lines last year. The two north–south cable corridors are cornerstones of the grid expansion in Germany to prepare the power grid for the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
“SuedLink and SuedOstLink play a key role”
“As part of our Strategy 2030, we have set ourselves the goal of increasing our construction activities in the energy sector and actively contributing to the energy transition. In Germany, the SuedLink and SuedOstLink transmission corridors play a key role in this strategy. We are proud of our successful track record in the tenders for these forward-looking infrastructure projects. Our local teams can not only deliver the necessary capacities here but have also been able to contribute their decades of civil engineering experience to these projects,” said Klemens Haselsteiner, CEO of STRABAG SE.
For SuedOstLink, STRABAG AG is building two sections of the corridor with a total length of about 120 kilometres: one section of around 82 kilometres between Pfreimd and Pfatter in the Upper Palatinate on behalf of TenneT and another 38-kilometre section between Eisenberg and Weida in Thuringia for client 50Hertz. STRABAG is also realising sections of the SuedLink corridor with a total length of almost 205 kilometres for TransnetBW. In addition to the 34.5-kilometre section in Thuringia, these include a section of about 70 kilometres in Lower Franconia (Oerlenbach to Oberaltertheim) and a section of about 100 kilometres in southern Lower Saxony (Elze to Friedland) in a joint venture with Köster Bau.
The contracts mainly involve civil engineering and earthworks – in each case on an enormous and previously rarely achieved scale. The cut-and-cover works involve excavating and refilling the trenches for the guard tubes and empty conduits into which the DC cables will later be laid. Wherever it is necessary to cross obstacles such as roads, a trenchless technique, such as horizontal directional drilling (HDD), is used to lay the pipes underground without digging.
Wind power from the northern coast for Germany’s south
The three grid operators TransnetBW, TenneT and 50Hertz plan to use the SuedLink and SuedOstLink direct current power corridors to transport renewable energy from northern and eastern Germany, in particular wind energy from the large wind farms offshore and along the coast, to the south of the country. Two grid operators share responsibility for the planning and future operation of each cable corridor. The SuedLink corridor, which will run for around 700 kilometres between Brunsbüttel and Großgartach near Heilbronn, will be realised and operated jointly by TenneT (northern section) and TransnetBW (in the south). The approximately 540-kilometer SuedOstLink corridor from Wolmirstedt near Magdeburg to Isar near Landshut is the responsibility of 50 Hertz (northern section) together with TenneT (in Bavaria).
