Demolition of barracks buildings

The estimators at Knepper know all too well that a project only works as well as the planning in advance. That's why meticulous planning, which also leaves a buffer for the unforeseen, is crucial. Lea Kreimeier from Knepper drew up the concept for the demolition of eight crew buildings, a community building and a large canteen building, whose premises were last used as refugee accommodation. "With many projects, there are factors that you can't plan for because many things only become apparent during demolition. The deadlines still have to be met," explains the estimator, "numbers aren't everything".

The fact that the opposite part of the barracks site was being used as a fully occupied refugee home was just one of the challenges. In order to achieve a high level of security and keep children in particular away from the demolition site, the first measure was to erect secure fencing. At the same time, proper traffic management had to be guaranteed. The ongoing operation of the refugee home also made it necessary to reconnect the supply lines for water, electricity and heating. As part of the barracks site was classified as a suspected explosive ordnance area, the district government's explosive ordnance clearance service had to come and carry out an inspection first. Another unplanned challenge was not long in coming. During demolition, it was discovered that the roof consisted of up to seven layers of roofing felt containing tar, which first had to be removed separately. Not everything can be determined during a site inspection. Bernhard Camminadi emphasizes the excellent communication: "I would like to expressly praise this. That's how I imagine good cooperation works. That what you say is kept to. That's why we quickly found a satisfactory solution for the roofing felt."

Knepper keeps the proportion of recycling as high as possible in every project and is always looking for solutions to recycle even difficult but uncontaminated materials. All demolition materials such as glass, metal and aluminum were returned to the recycling loop

Five demolition experts from Knepper were on site at all times, along with the necessary machinery including special vehicles. One of these was a semi-mobile impact crusher that runs on chains and quickly crushed the rubble to a transportable size. "No matter which employee was on site, everything worked brilliantly.

I would therefore like to thank everyone once again," says Managing Director Bernhard Camminadi. Knepper has prepared everything perfectly so that road and sewer construction and the construction of a rainwater retention basin can begin in the next step. Then nothing will stand in the way of marketing the land.