Between pollutant clean-up, hazard prevention and monument protection
"We have a purity here now that you probably don't even have in your living room."
The Völklingen Ironworks stands for pioneering spirit, for the heyday of iron production. The ironworks was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992 with the aim of preserving the imposing industrial monument in its entirety, authentically preserving the splendour of that time for future generations. A museum of a special kind with a special technical history. At the end of March last year, another important piece of the mosaic was added when an ensemble of three dry gas cleaning plants was handed over after having been cleaned of harmful substances.
The first guided tours take place a few months later with experts and media representatives. In a report by Saarländischer Rundfunk, Professor Meinrad Maria Grewenig, General Director of the Völklingen Ironworks, draws such an unforeseeable balance: "Thanks to the perfect way of cleaning, it is now possible for people to come in here." It took Kluge and Lobbe exactly six months and 15 days from mid-September 2014 to complete the project. It was a one-hundred-percent precision landing in terms of both timing and technical execution - something that many experts had not thought possible. Andreas Timm, Head of the Monument Department, confirmed this result to another group of visitors with these words: "We now have a purity here that you probably don't even have in your living room."
This project is unique in its combination of very different tasks. The experts and those responsible at the Völklingen Ironworks speak unspectacularly of "multi-component refurbishment".
Hidden behind this is a complex profile of requirements that moves between classic pollutant clean-up, hazard prevention and monument protection. Highest demands on black/white separation, occupational safety, construction site logistics and personnel planning. Accordingly, also the hardware. Scaffolding, airlocks, negative pressure towers, container villages, own power supply, digital 24/7 construction site monitoring, closed decontamination station for salvaged inventory. This is because the three facilities are not being rehabilitated one after the other, but in parallel. Three site managers, five foremen and 80 other emergency workers are on site six days a week. New questions arise every day. The project has many a tricky detail. But for every question that arises, there is a professional solution.
Picture from left: Andreas Timm (Völklingen Ironworks, Head of the Monument Construction Department), Christoph Hohlweck (Managing Director Kluge Sanierung) and Manfred Feetzki (Völklingen Ironworks, Deputy Head of the Monument Construction Department, Site Manager) are pleased with the successful completion of the refurbishment project.
Working by the sweat of one's brow. "Hard on the edge" is how Martin Boeckh, editor-in-chief of Entsorga magazine, describes it in his industry report. For one day in November 2014, he accompanied a group of pollutant clean-up workers in the TGR II every step of the way, up close from the lower table level to under the roof. He experiences the cramped conditions, feels the physical exertion himself, is impressed and fascinated by the care with which they carry out their work under the most difficult conditions. Asbestos and KMF fibres, gout dusts, heavy metal residues dance in the air. Boeckh classifies this environment as "extremely stressful" for himself. Now - after his visit - he can understand every protective measure all too well.
Processing of around 100,000 tonnes of soil with mobile technology
The quantity balance (see info box) speaks for itself, for the necessity of extensive refurbishment, for the investment of around 11 million euros in maintaining the three purification plants. So that the Völklingen Ironworks remains a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.
The Völklingen Ironworks stands for pioneering spirit, for the heyday of iron production. The ironworks was designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site in 1992 with the aim of preserving the imposing industrial monument in its entirety, authentically conserving the splendour of yesteryear for future generations. A museum of a special kind with a special technical history. At the end of March last year, another important piece of the mosaic was added when an ensemble of three dry gas cleaning plants was handed over after having been cleaned of harmful substances.
Quantities speak volumes:
- 700 tonnes of scaffolding material used
- 2,500 BigBags filled
- 1,200 tonnes of hazardous waste picked up and disposed of
- 45,000 square metres of surfaces cleaned
- 32 kilometres of asbestos-containing joints cleaned up
- 80,000 asbestos-containing screw heads coated
- 35,000 protective suits and P3 filters consumed
- 21 filter blocks with a total of 181 filter chambers cleaned
- 480 Filter chamber doors functionally restored after decontamination
- More than 300 inventory items salvaged, decontaminated and archived for the preservation of historical monuments
One of a total of 21 chamber filter blocks before and after the refurbishment. Pollutants removed, in every respect worthy of a museum.
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