On Thursday, 25.10.2018, Hall 12 of the Frankfurt Trade Fair was officially opened. More than 100 experts, including architects from Aachen-based kadawittfeldarchitektur, engineers, structural engineers and others, worked on the 250 million euro project. Starting in August 2016, the construction experts took over the helm and gave the exhibition grounds in the west of Frankfurt a distinctive face. In a joint venture with Ed. Züblin AG and ENGIE Deutschland GmbH, the building construction experts from Max Bögl were responsible for the turnkey construction of the new exhibition hall under technical leadership.

Glass structure with impressive outer skin

The sheer size of Hall 12 alone sets inspiring accents: it is around 248 metres long and 118 metres wide, with a height of 30 metres. The new exhibition hall with 33,600 square metres of exhibition space offers plenty of room and space for up to 23,600 people spread over two floor levels that allow for flexible use independently of one another. Foyers on all floors in the east, west and north, accessed by a total of 18 escalators, welcome visitors with plenty of light and spaciousness.

Precision lifting of prefabricated concrete parts weighing tons

As demanding as the architecture is, as challenging have the construction works been - especially the transport and installation of hundreds of prefabricated parts in various shapes and dimensions. They were manufactured precisely to the highest quality standards in the precast factories of the Max Bögl Group at the headquarters in Sengenthal and at the Gera site. The lightweight prefabricated parts weigh between ten and 20 tons. The giants with a length of around 27 metres, on the other hand, weigh up to 110 tonnes: Prestressed concrete girders, which serve as the main girders for the upper hall level. An enormous crawler crane with a maximum load capacity of 600 tons lifted the heavy beams precisely onto the supports. In addition, up to twelve building construction cranes with their jibs rotated on the construction site and supported up to 500 skilled workers in the technically demanding construction of the hall building at peak times during the shell construction phase. The major project manager of the Max Bögl Group, Georg Augsdörfer, also sees the extreme dimensions of the components and the considerable assembly heights as the greatest challenge of the project in retrospect. In the building itself, almost all the assembly work was carried out using lifting platforms at heights of six to 14 metres. This was both time-consuming and labour-intensive.

Complex steel construction work for hall and multi-storey car park

In September 2017, the shell of the building was completed. This was immediately followed by intensive assembly and installation of the interior fittings and technical building services on all floors from the cellar to the roof. In addition to the two-storey exhibition hall, a new multi-storey car park with around 800 parking spaces was built. The extensive steel construction work for Hall 12 and the multi-storey car park was the responsibility of the steel and plant construction department of the Max Bögl Group in cooperation with the steel construction department of Ed. Züblin AG.

Effective cooperation & finished parts as the key to success

In summary, the construction process could be accelerated through the use of prefabricated parts, as the components were already pre-produced in the factory and delivered just-in-time. If the decision had been made to pour the concrete on site, formwork and curing times would have been added. Mr. Georg Augsdörfer also found the cooperation of the working group to be highly positive and target-oriented: "The very close and effective cooperation in the Bögl-Züblin-Engie working group was a particular feature of this project. The entire construction and project management with up to 60 people worked together very harmoniously over the two years of construction".

Contact:

Patrik Fanderl
Phone: +49 9181-909-113906
Mail: pfanderl@max-boegl.de