Case Study: SuedLink

SuedLink is a ~700 km HVDC underground cable system transporting up to 4 GW of renewable energy from northern to southern Germany. As one of Europe’s largest underground energy infrastructure programmes, it demands tightly controlled work-front release, multi-authority approvals, and consistent compliance across multiple federal states.

Rubicon Archaeology, as part of the INFRA JV, was appointed to deliver archaeological evaluation, mitigation, and construction-phase support across approximately 450 km of the southern corridor (more than half of the total archaeological scope). Delivery is fully integrated within a Tier-1-led mega-programme environment, requiring archaeology to progress in parallel with live construction while protecting safety, environmental compliance, regulatory confidence, and programme certainty.

Rubicon Archaeology, working within the INFRA JV, embedded archaeology within Tier-1 governance via a single client-facing Programme & Planning Lead, supporting consistent escalation, rapid resequencing, and predictable work-front release across dispersed regions. Permanent regional and local delivery bases were established along the corridor to enable responsive mobilisation and reliable construction-phase support at scale.

Our methodology followed a structured progression:

• Pre-construction evaluation via trial trenching (620 trenches / c.157,000 m²), with reports completed and approved by the client and relevant heritage authorities.
• UXO watching briefs supporting safe delivery during ground investigations (250+ supervised interventions).
• Open-area excavation across 50+ areas covering 150+ ha, including mitigation triggered by discoveries during live construction.
• Construction-phase watching briefs across work fronts totalling c.729 ha within the programme footprint.
• Digital and GIS-enabled delivery, including corridor-wide integration of archaeology, UXO, environment, access and civils interfaces to support a “single view of the route”.

Safe, consistent delivery was maintained across a multilingual workforce scaling from approximately 50 to 300+ staff. Project-wide SHEQ controls included RAMS, OH&W governance, and multilingual competence frameworks (including a RAMS-driven Language Concept and Language Risk Assessment).

Quality and data reliability were ensured through a single digital recording standard (with authority-specific annexes), project-wide QA governance for context data, drawings, GIS and reporting, and clear escalation routes and audit trails. Environmental compliance was managed proactively under inspection-led regimes, with dynamic resequencing or suspension where required to maintain compliance and protect programme outcomes.

SuedLink is generating extensive new archaeological datasets across a highly dispersed linear corridor. Mitigation activity includes responses to discoveries made during live construction, with excavation reporting and synthesis studies in preparation to support future research and stakeholder value.

• Achieved 100% delivery of evaluation and approximately 25% delivery of mitigation to date, supporting construction milestone confidence.
• Delivered high-productivity construction-phase oversight across the active programme footprint, including strong progress in Baden-Württemberg (pre-construction open-area excavation and c.95% of construction-phase watching briefs).
• Maintained robust safety performance with zero serious incidents recorded over 350,000+ hours worked to date.
• Strengthened authority and client confidence through disciplined QA governance, consistent technical sign-off, and clear audit trails.
• Enabled transparent, programme-ready decision-making through integrated GIS delivery and predictable work-front release.

Rubicon Archaeology’s delivery on SuedLink, as part of the INFRA JV, demonstrates our ability to operate as a low-risk, predictable delivery partner within Tier-1 governance on nationally critical infrastructure programmes. Clients choose Rubicon for: