Berlin Brandenburg Airport
Berlin Brandenburg International Airport Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg International | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Berlin, Germany | ||||||||||||||
| Location | Schönefeld, Brandenburg | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 154 ft / 48 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 52°22′00″N 13°30′12″E / 52.36667°N 13.50333°E | ||||||||||||||
| Website | Berlin Airports – BBI | ||||||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport (German: Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg International) is the tentative name of a new airport (then Europe's most modern airport[1]), that will use some of the infrastructure of the existing Berlin Schönefeld Airport (Flughafen Berlin Schönefeld) in Schönefeld, Germany, located near Berlin and is scheduled for completion in 2011. After a ten-year administrative court battle, the federal administrative court in Leipzig gave the go-ahead for the project on 16 March 2006 by ruling in favour of Berlin against challenges by residents and municipalities near the future airport. Schönefeld is located on the border between Berlin and Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin; the name reflects that the airport will serve both.
Berlin-Brandenburg International will replace the three airports in Berlin. Tempelhof Airport closed in 2008, and Tegel Airport will also close. The existing airport in Schönefeld will be greatly expanded to the south from its current state to allow this. In fact, the new airport will only have the current southern runway (the new designated northern runway) in common with the existing airport. Due to noise-abatement regulations flights between midnight and 5:00 a.m. will remain banned.
Planning and construction
The primary reason for the construction of a new airport is to increase the airport capacity for the Berlin-Brandenburg region as two of the three existing airports are operating well beyond their maximum planned capacity. The resolution for the spatial planning of the airport was made on 13 August 2004.[2] The resolution calls for an expansion of the existing airport Schönefeld into a single airport that will replace the three existing airports in and around Berlin. Indeed the closure of Tempelhof International Airport and Berlin-Tegel International Airport were set as a prerequisite for opening Berlin-Brandenburg International to traffic.[3][4] In 2007, a total of 20 million passengers have used the three existing airports. The most congested airport is Tegel, which has a planned capacity for 9.5 million, but was handling over 13 million passengers in 2007.[5] The first phase of BBI is scheduled to open in late 2011 and will have an initial capacity for up to 30 million passengers.[6] Additional terminals have already been incorporated into the plans and the final capacity after completion of all expansions is given as 50 million passenger per year.
Construction work began on 5 September 2006. The initial projects were the access roads for the construction site and extension of the future northern runway (the only physical feature BBI will share with the existing Schönefeld airport). In 2007, work was started on the railway tunnel that will run underneath the airfield and the completion of Bundesautobahn 113 (A 113) which will connect the new terminals to the Autobahn network. The construction work for the new terminal is scheduled to begin in 2008 and by 2010 the airport fire brigade will move into newly built facilities. The new airport is scheduled to open for traffic in late October 2011.[7]
The inhabitants of the villages Diepensee (population 335) and Selchow (population 35) were resettled to either Königs Wusterhausen or Großziethen, since the two villages were inside the area of the future airport.[8]
Both the expansion of the airport into BBI as well as the quality of the connection to the railway network are subject of public debate. The Bürgerverein Brandenburg-Berlin e.V. is an organization that represents local residents who protest against an expansion of air traffic to and from the south of Berlin. Also, experts for traffic and environmental issues criticize the fact that both that the S-Bahn is forced into making a several mile long detour to the west before reaching the station underneath the new terminal and the late completion dates for the connections to the regional and intercity networks.
Naming the new airport
Since the acronym BBI is already in use as IATA-Code for Biju Patnaik Airport, Berlin Brandenburg International will use BER (the current Metropolitan Area Code for the two Berlin airports).
Meanwhile the choice of an official name is still in public debate. Among the suggested patrons are Willy Brandt, Marlene Dietrich and Albert Einstein. Otto Lilienthal has also been suggested but already is the official name of Berlin-Tegel airport.
Structures
During the construction of the new airport, some 3,400,000 t (3,300,000 long tons; 3,700,000 short tons) of concrete will be used and 14 km (8.7 mi) of temporary access roads, nineteen new road bridges as well as a network of approximately 20 km (12 mi) of permanent roads will be build.
Runways
In December 2007 the old northern runway of Schönefeld airport was closed to enable the construction of the final 650 m (2,130 ft) of the A 113. Hence, Schönefeld airport will be operating with a single runway until the opening of BBI in 2011.
In late 2007, the southern runway (07R/25L) of Schönefeld airport was extended from 3,000 to 3,600 m (9,800 to 11,800 ft).[9] This runway will serve as the northern runway for BBI. An additional runway with a length of 4,000 m (13,000 ft) will be constructed to the south of the new terminal.
Terminal
The terminal buildings will be situated between the two runways, creating a midfield airport. It will have an initial capacity of up to 30 million passengers, with the option of expanding the capacity through the construction of additional satellite terminals parallel to the intimal building. With all additions, the final capacity will be 50 million passengers. (By comparison: Munich Airport had 34.5 million passengers in 2008). In the first phase the terminal will have 25 jet bridges as well as 10 "walk-boarding-gates" for rapid passenger movement. Due to the high demand in low-cost airlines, an additional third building featuring walk-boarding-gates will be added during the initial phase.
The first module of the midfield cargo facilities will have a capacity of 60,000 t (59,000 long tons; 66,000 short tons) of cargo per year. With the completion of all planned expansions this can be expanded to handle up to 600,000 t (590,000 long tons; 660,000 short tons) per year.
Exhibition and infotower
With the beginning of construction work in October 2006, an information and exhibition centre called Airportworld BBI was opened between the S-Bahn stop Berlin-Schönefeld Flughafen and Schönefeld airport.[10]
Since November 2007 there also is the BBI-Infotower, which is situated in the central part of the construction site for the new terminal complex. From the top of the tower it is possible to get an overview of the entire construction site.[11]
Business park
The area surrounding BBI is zoned as a commercial district. Plans call for the construction of shopping centres and parking structures as well as industrial, commercial and office spaces.
Situated directly at the terminal complex will be the BBI Airport City with an area of 16 ha (40 acres). Marketing of the real estate has begun in autumn 2006 and beginning in 2009 offices, restaurants and retailers will be opening here.
To the north is the BBI Business Park Berlin with a planned area of 109 ha (270 acres) for industrial and commercial use.
A further Business Park North was planned as a future use of the area of the old Schönefeld terminal. However, so far there are no definite plans for the future use of this area.
Railway station
The terminal will be connected to a 3.1 km (1.9 mi) long railway tunnel running from east to west underneath the apron and the terminal complex. As the nine tunnel sections are the first structures to be built, they can be constructed in the form of conventional excavations.
A railway station with six tracks will be part of the tunnel. With all future rail connections in place it will be reachable in just seventeen minutes from Berlin's city centre. Two tracks will serve as a terminus for the S-Bahn, while the other four tracks will handle InterCity, InterCityExpress and RegionalExpress trains. Since the airport is directly south of Berlin, rail traffic will be able to connect it to an area reaching as far as the cities of Dresden, Halle and Leipzig. It is planned that about half of all passengers will reach BBI by rail, with a RegionalBahn connecting it to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Potsdamer Platz and Berlin Südkreuz non-stop to BBI.
The railway station will form the lowest level of the terminal complex and will be situated at a depth of 14.5 m (48 ft) under the surrounding ground level. A total of 33 km (21 mi) of track and 23 railway switches will be laid.[12]
Plans to extend the underground line U7 from Rudow to BBI have been set aside by the Berlin Senate.
References
- ^ http://www.berlin-airport.de/DE/BBI/Investieren/images/AirportCity2008.pdf reference on page 2
- ^ "Planfeststellungsbeschluss des Landes Brandenburg für den Ausbau des Flughafens Berlin-Brandenburg International". 13 August 2004. Retrieved 2008-06-15. – Resolution for the spatial planning of BBI by the state of Brandenburg (German)
- ^ "Planfeststellungsbeschluss zum BBI des Brandenburgischen Ministeriums für Infrastruktur und Raumordnung" (PDF). pp. pp. 327-328, 355. Retrieved 2008-06-15.
{{cite web}}:|pages=has extra text (help) – Resolution of spatial planing for BBI by the Brandenburg Ministry for Infrastructure and Spatial Planing (German) - ^ "Urteil des Bundesverwaltungsgerichts BVerwG 4 A 1073.04" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-06-15. – Ruling by the Federal Administrative Court of Germany, paragraph 193, p. 86 (German)
- ^ "Basic figures for Tegel airport". Retrieved 2008-06-15.
- ^ "Five million more passengers in the beginning". Retrieved 2008-07-31.
- ^ "Schedule of BBI construction work". Retrieved 2008-06-15.
- ^ "Relocating residents – facts and figures". Retrieved 2008-06-15.
- ^ "Closure of the south runway at Schoenefeld". 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2008-06-15.
- ^ Airportworld BBI
- ^ BBI-Infotower
- ^ Aufträge für Schienenanbindung Flughafen BBI vergeben – Contracts signed for rail connection of BBI airport. Press release from the Deutsche Bahn on 21 November 2007 (German)