As part of the U5 gap closure project, PORR Ingenieurbau was responsible for the generalisation of the 4-track Alex Tunnel including the track layer construction as well as the shell construction and the expansion of the Rotes Rathaus station. As always, old things had to be cleared out of the ground before new things could be built. While the 50-tonne large drilling rig was digging through the ground to clear the track, it caught an iron girder that had been inserted in 1927 as part of a house underpinning. As luck would have it, the drill twisted the double-T profile into a unique, aesthetic sculpture.
Since August 2023, this has stood near where it was found as a symbol of the transition from the past to the future - from the historic Alex Tunnel to the award-winning architecture of the Rotes Rathaus underground station. The names of the builders who were significantly involved in the construction at the time of the recovery are immortalised on the front of the sculpture.
