Essen Vogelheim settling basin

Van Boekel GmbH, our German branch, has been commissioned by de Emscher for the “vogelheim” project in Germany. This involves installing a settling basin at a sewage pumping station and redirecting the existing sewerage system to this basin, so that it can serve as a temporary catch basin when necessary. This all has to be done in the city centre of Essen, with minimal space to work and store the necessary resources and equipment.

The construction pit has a depth of 10.50 m below ground level, with the scope statement specifying a helical retaining wall to make this possible. However, we proposed an alternative, as a supplement to the main tender, and built a CSM wall. This milled wall has a surface area of approx. 2500 sq.m. and reaches down to the underlying marlstone, yielding a waterproof construction pit.

Immediately after installing the falsework, we excavated 11,000 m3 of soil and applied a drainage layer to drain off residual water during the project.

  • Essen Vogelheim
  • Emscher Essen

The construction pit was 10.5 m deep, in the middle of a cramped residential area

The 1100 m2 base plate alone contained 860 m3 of concrete, with the net 4200 m3 basin requiring a total of 330 tonnes of rebar and 2250 m3 of concrete. The head of the basin features vacuum chambers, which use a vacuum to draw up water when the basin fills up. As soon as the basin is empty again, this water can be used to rinse the basin floor.

After the concrete work was completed, the protruding CSM wall was partially demolished to avoid the accumulation of water, after which the basin was covered with a 3m layer of sand.

After the necessary ducts had been laid, the paving work had been completed and the operating centre had been built, all machinery, electrics, railings and safety provisions were tested. This included: safety provisions, lighting, testing the watertightness of the vacuum chambers, testing electrical equipment.

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ClientEmscher Essen
LocationEssen
Contract formVOB
CategoryCivil engineering & concrete engineering
Executed byVan Boekel GmbH
Time2017-2020
Apeldoorn, Zonnebos car parkapeldoorn-car-park-van-boekel-zonnebosvelp-bronkhorsteweg-grave-van-boekel-regionaalVelp, Bronkhorstweg – Municipality of Grave