The Brenner railway axis is under reconstruction between Munich and Verona. 11 emergency escape tunnels with an internal diameter of 4.00 m were constructed using the pipe jacking process for construction lot H3-4 and H8 of the Lower Inn Valley line in the region of Münster/Wiesing and 6 in the region of Jenbach. The 17 m to 130 m long emergency escape tunnels were driven in groundwater with up to 3 bar groundwater pressure in the floor area and at a depth underground of up to 25 m. Recovery of the pipe jacking machine was not supposed to cause any delays to drilling work on the main tunnel whilst constructing the emergency escape tunnels. As a result the pipe jacking operations were carried out as head bores in sealing blocks tangent to the main tunnel using a machine specially developed for the purpose.