Architectural highlight made of fair-faced concrete parts

The cross-border tram line between Kehl in Baden-Württemberg/Germany and the French city of Strasbourg has a practical but also a great symbolic effect for the European integration. The terminal stop at Rathausplatz in Kehl impresses with its extraordinary fair-faced concrete architecture.

Wall slabs and seating elements

Designed by the Berlin-based architectural office J. Mayer H., two separate structures were created with four wall slabs in total, supporting two roofs. Each of the building structures is assigned to a direction of traffic. Under the roof, additional fair-faced concrete elements offer space for seating.

Using Dyckerhoff CEM I 42.5 R cement supplied by the Göllheim facility, the wall slabs and the seating elements were manufactured in the precast concrete plant of Egenter located in Freiburg. The aggregates used were regional Rhine sand and gravel (0-32 mm). The wall slabs have a thickness of 35 cm, are 3.50 m high and 2.70 m wide. The seating elements are slightly thinner with a thickness of 30 cm, being 2.26 m high and 3.65 m wide. They are designed in fair-faced concrete of class SB 3 – SB 4 and exposure class XC4; the compressive strength is C 30/37.

The roof of the tram stop was concreted on site by the Uhl construction company located in Hausach. At night and at twilight, the wall slabs are illuminated quite effectively from below. The awarding authority is the city of Kehl; the tram stop was completed and officially inaugurated in December 2018. On the French side as well, the international tram line is characterized by impressive architecture: The Hoenheim-Nord terminal tram stop in Strasbourg was built according to the design of Zaha Hadid already in 2001.