of the Halle–Bebra railway (Thuringian Railway). It separates from that line before Erfurt-Bischleben in order to cross over the river and a road and enter the Augustaburg Tunnel. After the tunnel, the line turns south and parallels the Autobahn 71. First, it runs on the western side of the Autobahn and crosses the Apfelstädt, a state road and the Thuringian Railway on the Apfelstädt viaduct. This is followed by the Gera Viaduct at Ichtershausen and crossings of the A 4 at the Erfurt interchange, the A 71 in a cutting and the Gera again. As far as Neuroda, it is then built on the western side of the A 71. After passing under the A 71 through the Sandberg Tunnel, it then follows a separate route. In the following section of about seven kilometres, it passses over the Wümbach Viaduct to the new Ilmenau-Wolfsberg overtaking loops. On the way to Ilmenau, the line passes through the Thuringian Forest via nine tunnels with a total length of more than 22 kilometres. Construction With the ceremonial foundation of a bridge of the Rudisleben–Kirchheim state road over the future Eischleben relief loops, work on the new and upgraded line began on 16 April 1996. At the same time, the construction of the A71 (VDE Project No. 16) commenced. The first groundbreaking was carried out by the Federal Minister of Transport, Matthias Wissmann, the Thuringian Minister President, Bernhard Vogel and the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, Otto Wiesheu, who gave speeches despite loud protests by environmentalists. Among the guests was Heinz Dürr, the head of DB at that time. The construction work concentrated first on the 23 kilometre-long section "bundled" with the A 71 between Erfurt and Arnstadt. Construction of the almost 37 kilometre-long section between Erfurt and Ilmenau began in April 1996 and was almost completed in 2005. These included the Augustaburg, Behringen and Sandberg tunnels as well as the 1,100 metre-long Gera Viaduct at Ichtershausen and the 570 metre-long Wümbach Viaduct. At the beginning of December 1998, a newspaper reported that the Federal Ministry of Transport had issued an order to stop work on the southern part of the new line so that the work program could be examined. The northern section that was being built along with the A 71 was not affected. After the Federal Ministry of Transport initially stopped pre-construction activities in July 1999 as a result of tight