The schedule was tight: According to the Southern Bavarian Motorway Authority, the site had to be cleared by the first harbingers of winter. In spring and summer, the site was in continuous operation. To the disappointment of the motorists, traffic was often slow, especially during the holiday season. "The construction business is highly dependent on the weather," says the project manager. For example, temperatures of at least ten degrees Celsius are required for laying the noise-reducing thin-layer asphalt pavement, and marking work must also be carried out in dry conditions.
In continuous use around the clock
"An efficient and safe road network is one of the most important prerequisites for good social development" - writes the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI). It is only possible to prevent a traffic infarction on Germany's roads through expansion and the associated construction sites. Of course, the circumstances for motorists should still be kept as low as possible. In order to ensure that the road could be cleared after a construction period of just under six months, during the hot phase in spring and summer the so-called "Form 4" of operation applied: the work ran around the clock, seven days a week. During the day, the civil engineering work was carried out, and at night the asphalt was milled and paved under floodlight. Telematics systems were used on site to ensure optimum logistics. Among other things, this enabled material transport by truck to be significantly improved. In addition, information modeling was used as a digital tool as a pilot project in the field of infrastructure building. The aim of BIM is the digital networking of all data and information to improve construction processes.
From scapegoat to rescuer in an emergency
Traffic jams and minor traffic accidents could nevertheless not be avoided. In particular, the time spent as a so-called island construction site was a great challenge for everyone involved. "Our construction workers were surrounded by flowing traffic, right towards Munich and left towards Nuremberg," says Günter Graf. They then made their way to the construction site through temporary gate access roads - but the detour to the container storage area meant that they had to cover a distance of 60 kilometres. Stress for the construction workers, who not only had to endure the construction and road noise all day long, but also spent their breaks there. The project manager explains: "A construction worker with bread and butter and cigarettes while standing in the faltering traffic - sometimes even plastic bottles fly there". However, those affected took such incidents very lightly and did not allow themselves to be upset by them. Often they were even the rescuers in an emergency, when they pulled vehicles out of traffic with heavy equipment after rear-end collisions or supplied the traffic jam victims with gasoline.
Strong cohesion in intensive times
Every day brings new stories, both on the construction site and in the office container. "One already grows together during this intensive time", says Günter Graf. Especially shifts on weekends or late evenings are different from those during "normal" working hours. And even after twenty years in business, he is still relieved when a project like this is not only successful, but above all without accidents. Because the next major construction site is sure to come.
