Construction of Berlin’s new metropolitan airport, the Willy Brandt Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (BER), began in 2006. Named after the chancellor who governed former West Germany in the early 1970s, the new airport was to open in 2011. BER is a project of the city-state of Berlin, the regional government of Brandenburg and the federal government of Germany. The topping-out ceremony was held in 2010, but the opening was delayed – first until 2012, then until 2013 http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/berlin-brandenburg-airports-opening-delayed-again/, and most recently until 2017 http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/berlin-brandenburg-airport-boondoggle/. In the meantime, the cost of building the new airport has risen from a projected $4.9 billion to $6 billion and may approach $7.2 billion by completion time. Meanwhile the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport is costing German taxpayers a whopping $17.9 million per day just to heat, light and keep its essential systems going. http://www.mro-network.com/opinion/2015/09/vw-scandal-overshadows-new-berlin-airport-delay/6005 BER has not only been at the butt of many jokes, but after four delays and without a definite completion date in sight, Germany’s reputation for top quality work has been seriously tarnished.
Further Delays for Berlin-Brandenburg Airport
Now there are new potential delays on the horizon. Berlin-Brandenburg Airport’s most serious problem at this time is its faulty fire protection system. While the architects had intended to funnel smoke underneath the airport halls, ventilators were installed on the roof instead. That’s probably because the chief planner for the fire protection system was not an engineer. He was a technical draftsman, as emerged recently http://www.dw.com/en/date-set-for-long-delayed-opening-of-new-berlin-airport/a-18126206. A monitoring committee found that three of the airport’s twenty ceiling panels are fitted with ventilators that are too heavy. With 8,800 pounds, the ventilators are twice as heavy as called for. The discovery prompted the committee to issue a stop-work order, and workers are not allowed to work inside the terminal until modifications are made.
That’s not all. It has also come to light that unreliable foamed concrete was used for 600 fire-resistant walls. Before final inspection can be passed, these walls will have to be reinforced or replaced.
And there are other issues with the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport: There aren’t enough check-in counters and luggage retrieval systems, the IT system cooling units are too weak, the ducts through which cables are routed are dangerously over-burdened and the airport will be too small after all to handle the expected air traffic.
Corruption charges surround Berlin-Brandenburg Airport
One of the airport’s biggest contractors, Imtech Germany, the company that was in charge of repairing the airport’s faulty fire-safety system, has filed for bankruptcy. The insolvency declaration followed kickback allegations http://www.mro-network.com/opinion/2015/09/vw-scandal-overshadows-new-berlin-airport-delay/6005. This is not the first time that bribery charges have surrounded the construction of BER. Last year, the airport’s technical director, Jochen Grossmann, was convicted of corruption. A fraud probe into several other contractors is underway. Germany’s Bild newspaper reported that three well-known companies are currently under investigation for fraud in connection with work on the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport: Siemens, Bosch and Deutsche Telekom. http://www.dw.com/en/fraud-probe-into-main-contractors-for-berlins-new-airport/a-18652795
Is Berlin-Brandenburg Airport the project from hell? It looks that way!
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.
Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
Tags: BER, Berlin-Brandenburg airport, corruption charges, Imtech Germany, Jochen Grossmann, project from hell
