City council decides on location for rainwater overflow basin
Yesterday, the city council made a decision on the location of the stormwater overflow basin (RÜB RU 2). It followed the recommendation of the administration and voted by a large majority in favour of the Brückenstraße site between the intersection of Theaterstraße and Chemnitz Bridge to Uferpark, the so-called "stump" of Brückenstraße.
The decision in favour of this location will enable the waste disposal company of the City of Chemnitz (ESC) to draw up the legally compliant approval planning required by 31 December 2015 and complete the structure by the end of 2018. Construction work on the largest rainwater overflow basin in the city centre, with a capacity of 4,050 m³, is expected to begin at the end of 2016.
In the design variant at the Brückenstraße site, the separation structure and the storage basin are located in the Brückenstraße stump in front of the residential buildings of GGGmbH, houses no. 16 - 20 and 24 - 28. Similar to the new construction of the RÜB in Otto-Werner-Garten, which was completed in 2011, the ESC is tied to the specific conditions prevailing in the area of Georgbrücke and Brückenstraße. The stormwater overflow (RÜ 101) located just before the Georgbrücke bridge acts as a relief structure for the wastewater volumes from the main collector on the right bank (combined sewer) and the Gablenzbach main collector. In total, the wastewater and rainwater from around 80,000 residents and the sealed surfaces of these residential and commercial areas are brought together here.
The selected basin location is considered to be flood-proof measured against the 100-year rainfall event (HQ100) and was preferred after weighing up various framework conditions such as technical feasibility, interference with public traffic areas, costs, space requirements and flood safety.
Due to the availability of space and the future urban development function of this section of road, the Brückenstraße site offers the opportunity to combine the wastewater system with high-quality open space planning and to compensate for the loss of park and open spaces in the residential environment of the neighbouring blocks of flats. Thanks to special technical measures such as aeration and ventilation in the direction of Chemnitz, there will be no odour nuisance after completion compared to the other sewer system. The same applies to any noise nuisance.
The total costs, including ancillary costs and land acquisition, amount to approx. 16.53 million euros.
During the urban development and open space planning phase (draft planning), the comments and concerns of local residents will be taken into account alongside those of the public authorities and weighed up against each other in relation to economic viability and feasibility. To this end, the ESC also engages in open dialogue with local residents. In particular, answers to questions about the construction process, changes to traffic routing during the construction work or the planned open space design will be a recurring focus. Coordination within the city centre for possible coordination with measures of other users such as the civil engineering department will also play an important role in the preparation of the approval planning by the end of the year. Ultimately, this can result in decisions for the economic benefit of various interests, including the upgrading of the area utilised after completion.
Before these findings can be made, however, the engineering work will continue immediately after yesterday's decision on the location. It will only be possible to start weighing up the various interests and take them into account in the further planning process once the planning-relevant fundamentals have been established, such as the as-built survey and subsoil expertise (expected by the end of the second quarter of 2015).