Noise protection for a green oasis

Innovative wall panels for Frankfurt tunnel

Right in the middle of Frankfurt, a totally new quarter is being created: the European Quarter with spacious green areas to make for a particularly high quality of living. But what about the through-traffic? The cars are simply passed through a 395 metre tunnel underneath the new European Garden. To ensure that future residents can enjoy the quietness, noise protection was a priority in building the tunnel. From February to November 2016, four apron walls and eight tunnel walls at the portals were fitted with 950 square metres of highly noise-absorbing wall panels, 670 square metres of them provided with decorative printing.

Made to measure
In designing the arrangement of the noise protection panels, planners had to account for the curving apron walls as much as for the radius of the tunnel portal, ensuring that inclined surfaces, recesses and the large number of service doors would all be taken into consideration.

Designed appearance
The noise screen also doubled as a design element. The highly noise-absorbing panels were directly imprinted, which naturally did not at all affect their noise protection properties. The creative design was furnished by Gregor Schibblock and his team from the schibblock advertising agency.

Sustainably reproducible
Each individual panel was given an ID number and alignment mark which will make it possible to reproduce single panels in the event that they are damaged. In this way, the attractive design of the noise barrier will be preserved intact for a long time.