Six weeks ago, we started construction work on the underground BBI station. At present there’s a gigantic hole to be seen there. Work is in progress nonstop with excavators digging up the ground, dump trucks moving earth and concrete piles being cast in the ground. Ulf Hofmann, project manager of Schälerbau, makes sure that everything goes like clockwork on the station site. I spoke to him just recently.

Mr Hofmann, isn’t it frustrating to be building a station that is going to be out of sight underground?

I got used to that kind of situation a long time ago in my working life. My last project was the building of the new ICE line between Ingolstadt and Nuremberg and a great deal of that consisted of several tunnels. And anyway, to be building a station below ground here in Berlin is a great occasion.

What do you see as being the greatest challenge of this particular job?

The special challenge is that another terminal is to be built above the station, which as you say will be underground. This is not exactly an everyday scenario. Our foundation concept consists of piles and rafts that we are combining with one another. This is known as a combined piled-raft foundation.

How many people are currently working on the foundations?

We are only just beginning. We have put up the sheeting, set up the dewatering/groundwater conservation system and are now in the process of making the piles. So I would say there are about 50 site workers on the job at the moment.

But there are sure to be more in future, aren’t there?

Oh, definitely. At peak times there will be 200 to 300 people working here. We work with different subcontractors that are responsible for special areas, eg, foundation work, dewatering and earth moving. The team responsible for construction consists of four companies with Schälerbau heading the team as technical manager.

Sounds like a great deal of co-ordination is necessary.

Yes, a tremendous amount. I tend to be someone who prefers to organise things outside on site, particularly as I once worked as a foreman. But that’s not possible, of course, as you can see from the pile of correspondence on my desk. But I do have a large team giving me plenty of assistance.

And who is your most important contact on the construction site?

There is a big site management team I liaise with and I also speak to several foremen who are in charge of the individual special fields.

Is everything going to plan so far?

I’m quite certain it is.

Wersja drukowana berlin-airport.de (Copyright Berliner Flughäfen)