Berlin, Germany
- Location: Berlin, Germany
- Architect: Gerkan, Marg & Partner, Hamburg
- Completion: 2002
- Client: Deutsche Bahn AG, Berlin, Germany
- Scope of Work: Steelstructure und Glazing
- Eindeckung /Verkleidung: 17.000 m² Verbundsicherheitsglas, alle Gläser in verschiedenen Größen und Abmessungen
- Tragkonstruktion: 3.100 t einlagige Gitternetzschale mit seilverspannten Hauptträgern
The new railway station Lehrter Bahnhof at the heart of Berlin will be the central transfer point in a network of regional and urban railway lines, the subway, trams and buses. The railway station lies halfway between the eastern and western centres of Berlin, just opposite to the Reichstag and the Chancellor`s Office.
MERO built the steel substructure of the new roof in record time of just for months. This remarkable construction consists of 23 steel roof girders g the framework with arches ranging between 15.5 and 17 m height and between 59 and 68 m in width. Since the beginning of February 2002 over 2,800 tons of steel have been assembled and 93 km of steel cables have been installed.
Until all 10,000 welding seams had been finished and all cables had been tenioned, the heavy steel girders, each weighing between 40 to 50 tons, had to be supported on an erecting scaffold which in itself weighed 4,300 tons. At the beginning of May, the first of the 9,117 panes of the roof was installed. This was only one out of a number of logistic master strokes, since no two panes are of identical shape, due to the fact that the hall forms a long-stretched bow and widens towards the center of the railway station.
With 780 solar modules on its south side, the east-west roof supplies the entire railway station. The original plan had been for a lenght of 454.6 m, but a reduction to 321.4 m had to be made due to time and cost factors. The 42 m wide opening in the middle of the roof is to be built over with two building complexes. Between June 16th and July 4th, the new rail tracks were opened for traffic in two steps.
All work on the approx. 1 km long bridge structure, which accommodates the six tracks and three platforms of the city lines running in east-west direction had to be completed by June 16th. This included the installation of signals and safety devices, al well as the power lines and the load tests for the bridges.
Finally, on June 21st the tracks for long-distance traffic were opened and the first trains rolled through the new railway station Lehrter Bahnhof.
