Perfection in Stone

The caverns are located on the Southern side of the Puster valley. Specifically, they are in the Brixner quartz phyllite zone in a dome-shaped rock which is closed in on all sides.
An extended geological engineering and rock mechanics investigation (including drillings, seismic and geo-structural photos, as well as a pilot gallery) resulted in an ideal alignment of the caverns and produced clear instructions for the planning and carrying out of the gallery construction works (joints, stratification/cleavage, mechanical defects, rock mass classification, required stabilisation and support system measures, etc.)

Rock Mass Classification
All caverns were classified as being class III (RMR = 60-41) according to Bieniawsky, with exception of the shaft inset area.
Structurally, the fault zones were predicted to be class IV, while the remaining areas were estimated to be class III.
With relation to the project, the complicated intersecting and cutting areas were assessed as being class IV.