NEWS

Clearing the construction site for the Copernicus Quarter in Heidelberg

Foto Kopernikus 2 scaled 2

In Heidelberg, the so-called PX area, a shopping and service centre of the US Army, was operated for decades near the railway station. Before that, the site had already had a long history of use. After the withdrawal of the US Army in 2014, the various buildings were successively demolished. After the removal of a grocery store that had been located there in the meantime, the clearing of the last building on the site began in the summer of 2020 to free up the building site for the new residential and commercial area "Kopernikus-Quartier". The new development is located south of Heidelberg's main railway station in the immediate vicinity of the new "Bahnstadt" district.

To clear the construction site, MuP Umwelttechnik carried out a waste-technical investigation of the building, evaluated the analytical examinations and drew up the specifications for demolition. After evaluating the offers and awarding the contract, the first step was to gut the building and separate the various components containing pollutants, which was carried out under intensive occupational safety and emission protection measures.

In addition to the separation of pollutants, the demolition of numerous old, extensive building remains, channels and concrete foundations encountered in the subsoil was also challenging.

The excavation of the underground components was carried out in cooperation with a specialist company for explosive ordnance investigations. For the environmental investigation of the building ground, samples were taken from the backfill material of bomb craters as well as from excavator tracks. The analytical results were evaluated on the basis of waste and soil protection aspects.

After completion of the demolition work and the explosive ordnance drillings, the construction sites were handed over to the new owners for new development in July 2021.