To help attain the goal of eliminating effluent, PORR is building underground giants 46m below ground.
The new Oberhausen Pumping Station will take the effluent from the low-lying sewer duct via an aboveground gravity sewer to the Emscher-Mündung wastewater treatment plant in Dinslaken. The Oberhausen-Handbach Pumping Station pumps accumulating effluent from the Handbach sewer into the higher-level twin-bore sewer duct which leads to the Emscher-Mündung wastewater treatment plant. The excavation works required for both pumping stations were carried out by third parties in a separate construction phase using bored pile construction and excavation under decking. The Oberhausen Pumping Station consists of a cylindrical underground engineering component with a diameter of 46m and a foundation depth of 44m below ground level. The Oberhausen-Handbach Pumping Station has a diameter of 7m and a depth of 12m. In addition to building the pumping station, the construction scheme includes further engineering services, such as the construction of the 220m-long section of pipe jacking, two expansion shafts including the housing for the photooxidation plants, the operations building with monopitch roof, the dosing station including observation tower, the wet well and the shaft structures, the pipework and the implementation of the external works.
All areas of PORR expertise under one roof: for a scheme which is economical and safe
PORR brings together under one roof a diverse range of expert skills, as are needed for the implementation of the complex Emscher Redevelopment construction scheme. In order that a project of this magnitude could come to fruition safely and economically, it was necessary to make use of digital tools: BIM (Building Information Modelling) was used for documentation, reinforcement inspections, concrete monitoring as well as for documentation of wet concrete tests. In addition to all this, the civil engineering aspects of the project received help in planning through the sister firm, pde Integrale Planung GmbH, which was involved in schedule control and saw to it that all contractual intermediate deadlines were met. It wasn’t only PORR civil engineers who were involved within the overall project framework. Construction Phase 40 of the Emscher sewer, a 10km-long section of sewer duct consisting of two parallel tunnel bores, was carried out by PORR Bau GmbH /Infrastructure/Tunnelling.
Opening of the Oberhausen Pumping Station marks most important step in the Emscher Redevelopment project
The technical acceptance of the Oberhausen Pumping Station by the Emschergenossenschaft went ahead successfully as early as the end of July. Now only the remaining external works are left to do. On 20th August, the pumping station was officially opened in the presence of the Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet. The opening of the pumping station in Oberhausen thus represents the most important precondition for minimising wastewater pollution in the municipalities of Dortmund, Castrop-Rauxel, Recklinghausen, Herne, Herten, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Gladbeck, Bottrop, Essen, Oberhausen, Duisburg and Dinslaken. For the Emscher River, that means: At the end of 2021, the river will be freed from its pollution load for the first time in more than 170 years. Because as soon as the pumping station is up and running, gradually all the remaining sources of wastewater discharge into the Emscher will be connected to the underground sewer. In the future, clean river and rainwater will openly flow into the Emscher, while the wastewater will be directed through the underground sewers to the wastewater treatment plant.
