Where: Vienna, Austria

What: Construction of three subway stations.
In the first stage of his documentation of the Modern Metro (U-Bahn) Phase 3 subway construction, Bernhard Vogl visited three sites and shot panoramas representative of the ongoing construction project. Vogl’s virtual tours are accessible from the subway map on his website.

U2 Subway Building Site Donaukanal, Vienna in fullscreen

Vogl shot the Schottenring Station as it is an excellent example of the “New Austrian Tunnel Method” (NATM). The two main station tunnel sections were dug after freezing the soil under the Wienkanal River with liquid nitrogen (you can see the pipes covered with frozen water in the panos). Praterstern Station is the largest and is two stories in height. The concrete skeleton is finished and if you walk around you can see a tunnel drilling machine in action and some other heavy machinery. The main building and interior is finished at Leopoldau Station. Vogl’s virtual tour shows all the main areas like the garage (where the train fleet will be serviced) and the walk into the subway tunnel.

U1 Subway Building Site Praterstern, Vienna in fullscreen

Why: “The history of the Vienna Metro starts in 1898 with the official opening of Otto Wagner's "Stadtbahn" - a metropolitan railway operated with steam engines”, Vogl explains. In 1925 the Stadtbahn was electrified but it “took 80 years (from the original opening) and a legendary number of never realized projects until the first dedicated subway tunnel (located between Karlsplatz and Reumannplatz) was opened. In the following years, the subway network was successively extended, changing the town to a modern-style metropolis with a vital downtown.” As of 2000, there were 76 stations and 116 miles (186 km) of track transporting nearly 400 million passengers per year.

U1 Subway Building Site Leopoldau, Vienna in fullscreen

“In 2001, again a massive extension of the subway network was begun - to bring new life to poorly connected or developed areas. Considering the impact of such a project, it offered an opportunity to document the activity for future reference - with a technique that allows virtual visit years after completion of the project.”

How: Vogl obtained permission to shoot from the ombudsman at each building site responsible for organization and public relations. “All of them turned out to be very obliging”, he says, “and two spent hours showing me the site and explaining the work in progress and the machinery used”.

“From a technical point of view, this project turned out to be quite challenging”, he continues. “The building sites are wet and dusty at the same time. Either you have to shoot in low light situations or you are faced with extremely high dynamic range scenes. Some areas are filled with vibrating machinery and deafening noise, both difficult to capture and record; therefore, panoramas were done with varying approaches in terms of capturing and post-processing.”

Equipment: Fuji S2, Nikkor 10mm Fisheye, custom panohead. Audio captured with a Sony MZ-NH700 and a MS907 microphone.

Software: PTGui, Autopano, Enblend, Gimp and Pano2QTVR, Audio part: Cool
Edit 2000

Visit The Vienna Metro for a complete history.
Email : bvogl[at]gmx[dot]at