Excursions

As part of the excursion week of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, the Chair of Steel and Hybrid Structures organized a day trip to Eastern Thuringia and Saxony on 30 May.

First on the agenda was a tour of the GOLDBECK GmbH factory in Treuen. The first part of the tour provided an insight into the company's planning and construction process with a focus on digital planning tools. Afterwards, the students were able to gain an exciting insight into steel and sheet metal production processes during a guided tour. Finally, lunch was served in the GOLDBECK canteen. 

This was followed by a visit to the Carl Alexander Bridge near Jena. The steel truss structure, which was nominated for the German Bridge Construction Prize 2023, was extensively renovated from 2018 to 2020 and refurbished in line with its listed status. On site, the students were given a guided tour by Dr. Setzpfandt (Setzpfandt engineering office) and the company FUCHS Bau GmbH with interesting information about the repair process and the special structural features of the bridge.

Finally, the program included a site visit to the Erlenhöfe residential construction project by GOLDBECK near Jena. There, the students were able to gain an insight into the construction project, the construction processes and the company's prefabricated construction method. 

We would like to thank those responsible at the companies once again and look forward to next year's excursion!

As part of the excursion week at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, the Institute of Structural Engineering organized an excursion to major projects in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) from 8 - 10 June 2022.

The starting point for lecturers and students was the university, from where they headed purposefully towards Cologne to the Leverkusen Rhine Bridge, the first and only destination of day 1. The Leverkusen Rhine Bridge crosses the A1 and is the northernmost of Cologne's eight Rhine bridges. The tour consisted of an inspection of the new bridge and the existing structure. 

Day 2 began with an exciting presentation at BASt, which provided insights into the company. This was followed by a visit to the test track, which, in addition to BASt, also offers universities and manufacturers the opportunity to test new products and ideas for their practical suitability. Another item on the agenda for the afternoon was a visit to one of the most important current transport infrastructure projects in the state capital of Düsseldorf, the expansion of the light rail network. The new U81 line will connect Düsseldorf Airport to the existing rail network when the first construction phase is completed.

Day 3 began with a site visit to a five-storey office building in solid construction, where the walls were delivered to the site as prefabricated parts. The final destination was Signal Iduna Park. The tour led through the stadium and its areas, but also provided exciting insights into the construction and the striking yellow-colored, externally guided steel pylons, which were added during a renovation phase to close the previously open stadium corners.

Four destinations in the Central/Eastern Thuringia region were visited as part of the one-day excursion to timber construction/masonry construction on June 7, 2022.

At Wienerberg GmbH in Eisenberg, the participants were given a comprehensive insight into the production processes of modern thermal insulation bricks - from the extraction and delivery of raw materials, raw material preparation, shaping in the brick strand and the firing process in the tunnel kiln to the thermal insulation perlite filling.

The production of laminated timber trusses could be followed and reconstructed at STRAB Ingenieurholzbau Hermsdorf GmbH. In the joinery hall, the students were also given an insight into unusual special processes in timber engineering, such as the production of GRP-reinforced column base coatings for clamping in concrete sleeve foundations, the formation of rigid frame corners using universal finger joints or the block gluing of BauBuche components to form high-load-bearing solid timber columns for hall construction.

A visit to the Dragon's Tail Bridge in Ronneburg was the third destination of the day's excursion. With a total length of approx. 225 m, the unique wooden span construction is one of the longest wooden bridges in Europe. The bridge is also a successful example of the consistent implementation of structural wood protection measures. Encouraged to sway slightly by the students, the "Adventure Bridge" of the 2007 Federal Horticultural Show still lived up to its nickname in 2022.

The visit to the Jena-Holzland forestry office in Stadtroda proved to be a successful conclusion. On the one hand, the students were able to view a state-of-the-art timber building that was awarded the German Timber Construction Prize in 2019, and received additional information on the special features of the building's construction and the main construction material used, BauBuche, during a presentation by Mr. Jan Hassan (Pollmeier Massivholz GmbH und Co. KG). The visit was rounded off by the great commitment of the forestry office staff. A presentation first provided information about the tasks of a forestry office. A walk in the nearby municipal forest gave the participants a direct insight into some current forestry issues and challenges in connection with climate change. Forestry office manager Bernhard Zeiss and district manager Philipp Vogel emphasized the importance of the forest on the one hand, but also the importance of the structural use of wood from sustainably managed forests for climate protection on the other.

Impressions of the excursion can be found below. We would like to thank the companies and the forestry office for the interesting practical insights and presentations!

The course Advanced Construction Methods, Part Timber Engineering imparts in-depth knowledge of the load-bearing behavior, calculation and structural design of laminated timber engineering structures in the Master's degree course in Civil Engineering. During the excursion on 29.01.2020, the students gained additional insights into the production processes of two wood-processing companies.

All work steps in the production of laminated timber constructions, from the delivery of the board lamellas, finger-jointing and production of curved trusses in the press bed, to the production of transverse tensile reinforcements, could be directly understood at STRAB Ingenieurholzbau Hermsdorf GmbH.

At Rettenmeier GmbH in Hirschberg, the production of solid structural timber could also be followed in all work steps, from the delivery of the logs to the sawmill, sorting, drying, finger-jointing and gluing to laminated beam cross-sections.

The day's excursion was rounded off with visits to the shell of the two-court sports hall on Meyerstrasse in Weimar and the hall tower in Burgk.

The students were guided through the production halls at the Plauen Stahl Technologie GmbH plant. During this very interesting tour, it was possible to gain an insight into the production of large steel components and the associated challenges. Plauen Stahl Technologie GmbH, which operates internationally, focuses on plant construction, structural engineering, bridge construction and hydraulic steel construction, so that construction parts for lock gates, crane runway girders, bridge box girders and other types of custom-made products could be viewed up close. A presentation on the company structure and the presentation of some completed projects gave the students an insight into the organizational structure, areas of responsibility and project diversity of engineers working in practice. This was reinforced by an invitation to lunch with employees of Plauen Stahlbau Technologie GmbH.

A new replacement bridge is being built over the Zwickauer Mulde near the village of Schlunzig near Zwickau. The two-span structure is being built as a cable-stayed bridge with a loosely reinforced in-situ concrete slab and fully locked bridge cables with innovative and novel corrosion protection.  The extruded corrosion protection layer is being used for the first time in Germany with this construction project. Employees of the engineering firm schulze+rank Ingenieurgesellschaft, the construction company Arlt Bauunternehmen GmbH and the Zwickau district road construction department provided the students with information on the environmental boundary conditions of the structure, special structural features during planning, logistical challenges during construction and numerous interesting details.

The staff of the Chair of Steel and Hybrid Structures would like to thank the participating companies and engineering offices for making these interesting excursion days possible for the students.

As part of the Faculty of Civil Engineering's excursion week, the Chair of Steel and Hybrid Construction took students from the Bachelor's and Master's degree courses in Civil Engineering and Natural Hazards and Risks in Engineering (NHRE) on a day trip on 23.05.2018. In the morning, we visited the construction site of a steel pedestrian bridge over the A4 near Stadtroda. We were given a detailed tour by the planning engineering firm DÄHN - Ingenieure and the client's representative from the Thuringian State Office for Construction and Transport. The production of steel building structures and metal construction was then on the agenda during the guided tour of the production halls at the Treuen site of Goldbeck GmbH. On the return journey from Treuen, the Glötzschtal Bridge was the first stop on the way. This is still the world's largest brick bridge and, as a technical monument, an impressive structure of early engineering achievements. The day ended with a visit to the Dragon's Tail Bridge near Ronneburg. The longest wooden bridge in Europe offers interesting insights into the structural design of a wooden span construction and structural wood protection.

On 22.11.2017, we conducted a day excursion with students on the Master's degree course in Civil Engineering as part of the courses in timber construction that have been taken over by the Chair of Steel and Hybrid Structures since the summer semester of 2017. The production of engineering timber structures made of glulam was on the agenda during the guided tour of the production halls of STRAB Ingenieurholzbau Hermsdorf GmbH. The 43-metre-high Saale Tower in Burgk, which was built with the participation of STRAB and is indeed a "pioneering" timber engineering structure, was climbed on the way south and examined in particular with regard to the implementation of the requirements of structural timber protection. At the Rettenmeier company in Hirschberg, the production of solid structural timber could be followed through all stages of the process, from the delivery of the logs to the sawmill, sorting, drying, finger-jointing and gluing into laminated beam cross-sections.

On 23.05.2017, we went on a day trip to the Rudolstädter Systembau GmbH (RSB) plant. After a detailed tour of the plant, the afternoon included a site visit to a bridge renovation by Schachtbau Nordhausen Bau GmbH. The listed bridge over the Bleiloch dam near Saalburg was viewed in detail.

On 17.05.2016, we went on a day trip to the Goldbeck east plant in Treuen. After a detailed tour of the plant, the agenda included site visits to several industrial halls in the Erfurter Kreuz industrial estate.