the Erfurt-Halle and Erfurt-Leipzig routes would be shortest. The ability to stop at the airport and at the new trade fair and affordable connections to the planned Leipzig/Halle freight transport centre and the Leipzig-Wahren container terminal also favoured the chosen option. The environmental impacts were less than or equivalent to other possible routes. Not least, long-distance trains from the north-west towards Halle/Leipzig and Dresden could use part of the route. As part of the planning work, hundreds of exploratory holes were driven to a depth of up to 70 m. For the planning approval process, the line was divided into 14 planning approval sections. Taking advantage of the provisions of the Transport Infrastructure Planning Acceleration Act (Verkehrswegeplanungsbeschleunigungsgesetz) approval for construction of all sections was achieved in two and a half years between 1994 and 1996. As part of the planning approval procedure further large and small-scale regional route options were examined. The first planning approval (for section 2.1) was issued in early December 1994. By May 1995, proceedings had been initiated for all sections. On 12 December 1995, the last approval was granted on Thuringian territory. The final decision, for the section between the crossing of the Unstrut and Halle, was adopted at the end of July 1996. All the planning approval process had been completed by early 1997. 18 tonnes of documents were produced for the planning approval process. On 20 June 2003, Deutsche Bahn CEO Hartmut Mehdorn and Transport Minister Manfred Stolpe signed the financial agreement for the Erfurt–Halle/Gröbers section. The planned cost for the section stood at €1.9 billion, the cost of the whole line was estimated to be €2.67 billion. Completion was scheduled for 2015. In the event of a successful bid by Leipzig for the 2012 Summer Olympics, the line would have been put into operation as early as 2012. The contract to build the Finne Tunnel was awarded in December 2006. The contract for the Unstrut Viaduct was awarded in January 2007 and that for the Bibra Tunnel was awarded in August 2007. In January 2008, the Osterberg Tunnel contract followed; it was awarded at the end of February 2008. At the beginning of 2009, all major engineering structures were under construction. In January 2009, Deutsche Bahn called construction tenders for the subgrade of the ballastless section 2 (track-km 197.889 to km 215.937) and the ballastless section 3 (km 215.937 to km 228.685). Both