Image: bahnprojekt-stuttgart-ulm.de | Achim Birnbaum

Striking chalice supports take shape

SÜLZLE Stahlpartner customers experience construction progress at Stuttgart 21

19.09.2019

The goblet supports form the architectural highlight of the new Stuttgart 21 through station and set new standards in the combination of statics and design.
Each roof goblet is unique in itself, differing from the others in inclination, shape and height (8.5 – 13 m). With a diameter of 32 m, the cantilevered chalice shell with the cap for the light eye spans the filigree base, which tapers sharply towards the bottom.
The first chalice support in construction field 16 was completed at the end of October 2018, the second in March 2019, the third in April 2019 and the fourth in September 2019. Another chalice support is expected to be built this year. Only when six completed chalices stand as a coherent group will the remaining narrow gaps gradually be closed.
Ed. Züblin AG relies on SÜLZLE Stahlpartner to manufacture the custom-made reinforcement. For each goblet support, the complicated geometry is reflected in around 11,000 different bar shapes, some of them three-dimensionally curved, including many unique specimens. The reinforcing steel is bent with specially modified bending machines in the S21 project bending shop in Denkendorf, which was set up specifically for this purpose, and checked by a full-scale laser projection. Like a giant 3D puzzle, the ironworkers, together with the surveyors, have to put the custom-made reinforcing steel exactly in place before the concrete can be poured between the mesh.
This year, customers of SÜLZLE Stahlpartner were once again able to see this construction engineering masterpiece for themselves live on site.
On September 27, the first “Stuttgart 21 Tour” took place. After the guided tour of the project bending shop in Denkendorf, they drove together to Stuttgart. There, the site manager of Ed. Züblin AG led the way in true style with helmet, boots and vest directly into the center of the action.