SubSurface Engineering: Construction Site Excursion

05.06.2023

Last week it was time to put on safety shoes, high-visibility waistcoats and helmets and head off to the construction site. The Chair of Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering and Environmental Geotechnics organised an excursion for the Subsurface Engineering students to two construction sites in Bonn and Monheim am Rhein.

The first stop was the construction site in Bonn. In the middle of the city centre, not far from the university and the Hofgarten, the Studierendenwerk Bonn (student support organisation) is having the Carré Nassestraße rebuilt. The building complex will house central facilities such as a mensa and administration and service offices. On arrival at the construction site, the workers had just had a break, so an employee of the Stump-Franki company was able to show all areas of the construction site. Dr. König from the Chair of Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering and Environmental Geotechnics contuniued with the technical presentation of the construction site. A special focus was on the disintegrated and overlapped bored pile wall, the soldier pile wall, and the grouted anchors.

After a lunch break in Bonn, the group set off for Monheim. Like Bonn, Monheim is also situated on the Rhine, and at the beginning of the 20th century a number of industrial and chemical companies were located directly on the banks. One of these buildings is the former Shell barrel filling plant, built in 1913-1915, which is to be converted into a multifunctional town hall. The so-called Kulturraffinerie K714 is to accommodate up to 4,000 guests. A delicate glass cube will be inserted into the brick building with its reinforced concrete roof structure. This will involve lowering the ground level by several metres. To achieve this, the original roof pillars are underpinned by jet grouting and the retaining walls of the construction pit inside of the existing industrial building are executed as jet grouted walls. The new basement will be constructed as a water-resistance concrete structure to protect the cube from groundwater and flooding from the Rhine. The students were able to get a picture of the progress and see the finished excavation pit, which was constructed using the jet grouting method with underpinnings, vaults, and buoyancy control.

Further information about the projects:
Carré Nassestraße, Studierendenwerk Bonn and Kulturraffinerie K174, Monheim

Many thanks to Stump-Franki Spezialtiefbau GmbH, Düsseldorf, Dr. André Schürmann, for making it possible to visit the construction sites.