Westfalen AG, Münster-Gelmer

The 10ha of land around Westfalen AG’s harbourside storage warehouse in the Münster-Gelmer district is now home to a new factory with workshop buildings, refrigerant storage and associated pumping and filling equipment. PORR Verkehrswegebau, based in Münster/Dortmund, and Oevermann Hochbau of Münster worked in tandem to fulfil the contracts for earthworks, dewatering, utility lines, road construction and the construction of operational and production buildings. The extensive range of competencies boasted by Oevermann was the deciding factor in the awarding of the contract.

Expansion for sustainable growth

Almost 100 years ago, the story of Westfalen AG began with a simple oxygen supply facility. Today, the Münster company is active in the fields of industrial gases & services, energy solutions and mobility. The company opened several new sites around the city during the 1950s and 1960s, including a filling facility in Gremmendorf and an oil harbour with fuel oil, propellant and propane gas storage tanks on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. Westfalen AG has been working for some time to transfer their base of operations from Münster-Gremmendorf to the Hessenweg industrial area on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, and this goal has now been reached with the construction of a new factory incorporating refrigerant storage and associated filling equipment along with workshop buildings and staff facilities.

High standards for traffic surfaces

Road surfaces on operational sites must provide for safe,

convenient transport. Verkehrswegebau road construction experts covered around 4,500m² of the site with a concrete surface featuring a high load-bearing capacity. Almost 50,000m² of the remaining factory areas were bituminised, with the exception of a few stone-paved sections. A total 20,000m³ of anti-freeze sand from the nearby Ems renaturation project and 15,000m³ of ballast substructure material were used in the appropriate layers across these areas. Utility line works had to allow for the construction of the 22t feeder gate structure, designed to divert contaminated quenching water and keep it out of the public canal network in the event of a disaster.

Turnkey construction of seven individual buildings

The building construction team was responsible for the turnkey construction of a solid operational and social building and six additional production and industrial buildings, all featuring a steel construction with trapezoidal roof sheeting and IsoMetall panel façades, in addition to the necessary landfill (some 65,000m³ of material). Floor slabs in some areas were required to be liquid-proof. As a specialist company certified in accordance with the German Federal Water Act (WHG), PORR worked with an appropriate expert to demonstrate that all appropriate measures were taken during construction. Structures had to be capable of withstanding the expected stress duration, and factors such as the choice of concrete used and the planning of complete liquid impermeability in all joins and passageways had to be considered.