Dilapidated buildings: safety closure necessary at Zöllnerplatz
One-way street regulation will be set up temporarily
From Friday morning, the existing traffic restriction at Zöllnerplatz 20/21 (B 107) will have to be extended. During an inspection of the dilapidated residential buildings by the building permit office, it was determined that the immediate danger zone due to falling building parts is now 12 metres from the front of the building, leaving a residual lane width of only 3 metres.
After examining the possible variants, the traffic routing with one-way traffic control was determined as follows: Traffic travelling into the city on Blankenauer Straße/Wilhelm-Külz-Platz will continue to be guaranteed. Traffic travelling out of the city (in the opposite direction) will be diverted via Müllerstraße/Wilhelm-Külz-Platz/ Straße der Nationen/ Christian-Wehner-Straße/ Chemnitztalstraße.
The affected traffic lights will be adapted to the changed traffic routing as far as possible. Nevertheless, there may be considerable traffic obstructions at peak times, particularly on Müllerstraße and Wilhelm-Külz-Platz. Pedestrian traffic can still be maintained by means of an emergency pedestrian route.
Road users are asked to pay particular attention and observe the changed traffic routing. The closure is expected to remain in place until the end of January 2014. The necessary work to reopen the road has already been arranged.
Note: Please also refer to the information provided by CVAG.
Background information
The owners of the two properties have not fulfilled their safety obligations for a long time. For this reason, the building permit office has had to order the danger zone to be cordoned off since June 2011.
In order to save the buildings, the city of Chemnitz tried to find new owners who would be able to secure the properties to prevent further deterioration.
Even the prospect of subsidies totalling almost 100,000 euros per property to secure the buildings did not lead interested parties to see an economic use for the buildings and they refrained from purchasing them.
The city of Chemnitz has initiated foreclosure proceedings for the property at Zöllnerplatz 20. The owner of the property at Zöllnerplatz 21 has given up his property and it is therefore ownerless. This means that the security obligations lie with the city.
Safety measures on the remaining building fabric of the properties at Zöllnerplatz 20 and 21 are not suitable to prevent the risk of collapse. Significant parts of the building's bracing components, such as the ceilings, roof structure and interior walls, have collapsed or are in immediate danger of collapsing. The street façade is only held up by a few components that are also at high risk of failure.
As the traffic restriction is only possible for a short period of time, the city of Chemnitz will have to take measures on the structures themselves to eliminate the danger.
It is currently being examined whether it is possible to demolish the buildings while retaining the façades in order to preserve the urban development situation of the closed perimeter block development. If, due to the desolate condition of the respective façade masonry, stabilisation is not possible or only possible with disproportionate technical and financial effort, the buildings will unfortunately have to be completely demolished.
Limbacher Straße 37 will soon be open to traffic again
The demolition of the building at Limbacher Straße 37 has made further progress, so that the local diversions can probably be cancelled in the coming days.