Today saw the start of work on the passenger terminal at the BBI construction site. Two coaches were filled to the last seat with journalists and no wonder. After all, we did have a very special journey to offer the people from the press, radio and television: a journey into the future, the future of Berlin and Brandenburg. Who could possibly say no to that?

Both coaches drove from Schoenefeld Airport straight to the BBI construction site. Then it was time for everyone to take off their shoes, step into wellington boots and don a safety helmet. Berlin’s governing mayor also slipped a hi-vis waistcoat over his black suit because he naturally did not pass up the opportunity to celebrate the start of construction work on the BBI terminal. Mr Wowereit dubbed it the “heart” of the airport.

And my co-workers and I really are putting our heart and soul into the building of it. What a show! To start with, two of our best excavator drivers performed a synchronised “builders’ ballet”, lifting cubic metre by cubic metre of soil onto the waiting trucks with virtuoso precision. The camera people were sometimes no more than centimetres from the bucket. Those pictures are sure to be very good.

There’s still some site tape flapping in the wind, outlining the gigantic dimensions of the six-story BBI passenger terminal: 220 meters long, 180 meters wide and 32 meters high. That’s how big it will one day be. It’s a mammoth project – and an important one, too. Matthias Platzeck, prime minister of Brandenburg, even said “The BBI is one of the most important building projects in Europe.”

print version berlin-airport.de (Copyright Berliner Flughäfen)