Berding Beton stormwater management system prevents flooding
This major project will take some more years to completion: Right in the city center of Oldenburg in Northern Germany, EWE, the regional utility group, plans to develop a completely new urban neighborhood including premises for retail outlets, service providers, housing and restaurants. The site awaiting development is situated between the Oldenburg Main Station and the Pferdemarkt, immediately adjacent to several existing EWE properties, covering an area of 4.5 hectares.
5.7 million euro contract
One of the crucial components of the infrastructural design was to incorporate an effective stormwater management system. Previously, torrential rainfall events had proved the importance of taking the necessary precautions in order to prevent unwanted flooding and the damage resulting from it. The inner-city project site includes a high ratio of paved areas, which can cause major problems when it comes to the quick absorption and drainage of suddenly accumulating large amounts of water. This is why the project included not only precautions to ensure effective stormwater drainage but also a comprehensive range of preventive measures, such as sufficiently large detention basins for intermediate stormwater storage in order to prevent overloading of the sewer networks in the event of heavy rainfall.
Civil works completed on schedule
Since water is a valuable asset, it should be handled in an environmentally friendly yet commercially viable manner. This is why the start and end sections of the stormwater channels were equipped with silt traps. A 31.4 ton flow-restricting structure comprising two DN 200 gates and a steel restrictor was installed in order to ensure controlled release of the stormwater from the detention reservoir. Berding Beton also delivered two custom emergency overflow systems measuring 2,000 × 2,000 × 2,100 mm and 2,000 × 2,000 × 2,200 mm, respectively. In this project, the civil contractors greatly benefited from Berding Beton delivering all items on schedule, thus saving valuable space on the job site, but also from the fact that the elements were installation-ready when arriving on-site.
In addition, the members of the Berding Beton staff ensured swift problem solving if and when required. As a result, all challenges were overcome in a joint effort, which allowed for timely completion of the civil works at the end of 2020.