Jan Felgendreher

The boss

Head of the bridge construction department, project manager for the first bridge section

“Every leader should have children. They will demonstrate your limits.” Jan Felgendreher has two sons who went to school in England, because until 2012 he worked eight years there for HOCHTIEF. The 53-year-old managed the further construction of the first section of the bridge and pushed it forward quickly. Because as a Cologne resident, he has been stuck in traffic jams here often enough. Hesitating, having reservations, hedging his bets before he takes the next step—you can imagine Jan Felgendreher as really quite the opposite of this. A guy like a tree—frank, hands-on, straightforward. “Yes, I’ll do it”, was also his reaction when HOCHTIEF hired him as a site manager after he finished studying engineering in 1996, and on the very first day of his professional life he was able to participate in building the B9 road tunnel in Bad Godesberg. “I have never regretted it,” says Felgendreher after a quarter of a century at HOCHTIEF. “Every day I learn something new and I am constantly amongst people from very different constellations.” 

Martin Asmann

The trailblazer

Whether professionally or privately - somehow Martin Asmann's life very often has to do with water. The father of three, whose professional life began in 1989 as a carpentry instructor at a former HOCHTIEF subsidiary, is not only a passionate surfer and swimmer. He is currently helping to build a bridge over one of Europe's largest waterways. Across a river in which even a skilled athlete like him would never swim because of the dangerous current. His job at HOCHTIEF is work preparation. This means that Martin Asmann is not a permanent member of the respective construction team. Rather, he comes into play at the very beginning of a project, in this case during the (re)tendering of the bridge construction. "I calculated what we needed in terms of formwork and scaffolding, obtained the relevant bids and, after the contract was awarded, concluded the contracts." His current job was a bit trickier than usual because HOCHTIEF was not starting from scratch in this particular case, but individual things were already in place. Asmann: "We had to look closely at what was still missing or needed to be replaced. Only then did we order accordingly."

Monika Willma

The experienced one

Monika Willma was one of the first to arrive at the construction site on the left bank of the Rhine. When the 53-year-old arrived in Merkenich in mid-March 2021, she first had to clean up. The floods a month earlier had washed out a lot of things, including parts of the construction roads and foundations. "Only after we had done this work could we set up the construction site," Willma recounts. And only then could she devote herself to her real job: Site manager. There are a few of those here. Because the new Rhine bridge is divided into four sections: A foreshore bridge (reinforced concrete), two river bridges (composite steel construction) and the so-called orthotropic bridge section (steel), which crosses the Rhine and is being built by partner company SEH. There are people responsible for each part. Monika Willma, who has been with HOCHTIEF for 27 years, is responsible for the substructures of the Strombrücke on the left bank of the Rhine. Because she lives in the Eifel region, she has been in many traffic jams on the A1 on her way to her various HOCHTIEF projects in the past-and knows about the need for the expansion. "But hello! That's where I lost some of my life time," recalls the civil engineer, for whom coordination is also the order of the day at home: 15 budgies and two cats have to get along with each other. Willma's recipe for success: "The birds live in one room, the cats in the rest of the house. Then it works out with the cohabitation."

Nico Krämer

Burning with enthusiasm

When Nico Krämer isn't taking care of the work instructions on the Leverkusen bridge, for example, specifying work steps and sequences or the use of individual construction materials, he's at the grill. "I'm a passionate griller, so I fire up the grill every weekend in the summer and get to work," Krämer says. The Langenfeld native develops similar enthusiasm as he does at the barbecue when he talks about his work. "I became a civil engineer to build bridges." So he's in the right place in Leverkusen. Two weeks after handing in his master's thesis, he started at HOCHTIEF in 2019. Since then, things have been going smoothly for him. "As a young engineer, everything I do is for the first time. That's challenging, of course, but also very exciting." Leverkusen is his third project in two and a half years - and all have been fundamentally different. A lot of new and exciting instead of “schema F.” Krämer is certain: "It can go on like this."

Renate Schönfeld

The concrete expert

Renate Schönfeld's workplace is just under 60 kilometers from the Leverkusen bridge. In her laboratory in Duisburg, the concrete we install has to prove itself. "My job starts with checking the requirements for the individual concrete components of a project and compiling the required concrete types for the tender. During the course of the project, I check whether the concrete installed also meets the required properties," says the Cologne native, describing her work. In addition, Schönfeld manages one of HOCHTIEF's three test centers. There she monitors whether the building material is being used correctly, i.e. whether the strength is correct in the first instance. For this purpose, concrete cubes are produced on the construction sites and brought to the laboratory. "There we check the compressive strength of the concrete," says Schönfeld, who has been working at HOCHTIEF for more than 20 years-and has put tens of thousands of cubes under pressure during that time. Even in her free time, the mother of a daughter can't really get away from the building material. "I also tinker with concrete at home, and have already made bowls, candlesticks or even Easter eggs out of it for friends and relatives." Whether her gifts are well received? "Well, so far no one has complained."

Robert Grummel

The problem solver

Robert Grummel grew into his job in the classic way. His father, a civil engineer himself, took him to construction sites at an early age. During school vacations, he worked as a laborer in masonry crews. "Actually, I was always convinced that this wouldn't be my thing. But after a short time, my interest was piqued and I started to get excited about construction." The path: high school graduation, military service, studies in Braunschweig and Aachen, trainee start at HOCHTIEF in early 2018, construction manager since 2020. In Leverkusen, he is in charge of the construction of the foreland bridge. This is the part of the Rhine bridge that is still on land and crosses it in a prestressed concrete structure about 400 meters long. Besides organization and planning, an important part of his job is solving problems. As is always the case in life, these usually crop up when you need them least. "In this case, a quick and pragmatic solution is needed so that the whole construction site doesn't come to a standstill," Grummel knows. A classic case: an important part is missing, procurement actually takes a week, but the thing has to be there tomorrow. "Then we organize it with our people and pick up the part ourselves." And it's up and running again.

Bettina Henneke

Committed to the family tradition

"It stays in the family"—this saying fits Bettina like a glove: "My great uncle helped build the old Leverkusen bridge in the 1960s as an assembly supervisor for steel construction," says the civil engineer, who trained at RWTH Aachen University. When she told her grandmother's brother that she would now be helping to build the successor structure, he was pretty excited - to say the least. "He's incredibly pleased that I'm not only continuing his profession, but a core project of his career to boot." The construction manager, who does a lot of extensive sports (triathlons, marathons) in her spare time, is overseeing the fabrication and installation of the precast concrete elements on the new bridge, which will be laid on top of the Strombrücke. This is the bridge that runs directly over the Rhine. Henneke has been working for HOCHTIEF, her first employer, since 2017. She was keen to be part of the mega construction site on Germany's largest river because of the size of the project and, of course, the family connection. Incidentally, Henneke, who now lives in Cologne, was born in the city whose name is borne by both the old and the new bridge.

Yannis Schwarze

Likes surprises

Yannis Schwarze, Project Manager Rhine Bridge Leverkusen, was already the 1st site manager for the first bridge section. He gets up every morning with a pretty precise plan of what's coming up that day. "And I can be sure that half the time it will be completely different." It is precisely this variety, the constant challenge, that the Dortmund native appreciates about his job. Challenges, anyway. They're important outside of work, too. "I switch off well on the racing bike. Best when it's steep and long uphill, because then I can't think about anything else." Complex projects, lots of contact with people, "an incredibly steep learning curve" and all in teamwork - for the passionate sportsman, all things that round off the positive picture surrounding his job. The civil engineer found his way to the company via a six-month internship on a HOCHTIEF project. That was five years ago. At the time, his work was so well received that the project manager asked him if he would like to stay on. Yannis Schwarze wanted to.

Jörg Hoffmann

Safe is safe

Mowing the lawn in sandals? That would never be an option for Jörg Hoffmann. After all, he works for HOCHTIEF as a safety and environmental protection engineer. That's why, even in the garden at home and in his private life as a whole, the rule is: Safety First!

Like Martin Asmann, the father of four children is not part of the permanent crew on the bridge. Together with his colleagues, the graduate civil engineer is responsible for safety on construction sites throughout Germany. Hoffmann: "I check on site whether the work safety rules are being observed. In Leverkusen, for example, we have also worked out a rescue concept for access to the deep excavation pits in cooperation with the local fire department, just in case."

Hazardous substances can harm employees, but also nature. This is not the only reason why environmental protection is given equal priority in Hoffmann's focus. "Sustainability is a very important issue for us." In the past, ecology and economy often got in each other's way. Today, things are different. "It is significantly more expensive to take construction waste to the landfill than to recycle it - or to avoid it altogether." In other words, if you get it right from the start, you'll not only protect the climate, but also your bottom line.

Yasemin Krämer

Doesn't buy your everyday stuff

To say that Yasemin Krämer has a long shopping list to work through is a slight understatement: She buys almost everything (for exceptions, see Martin Asmann, among others) that is needed in terms of work and materials for the construction of the new Leverkusen highway bridge. "This ranges from bored piles and sheet piling to the containers in which the construction site management works, lightning protection and the diving work," explains the mother of two daughters, who likes to do handicrafts in her spare time and is active in the charitable association "Kölner Herzkissen". "Small items such as hammers, nails and the like, on the other hand, are not part of Krämer's remit. If necessary, the on-site crew can request them directly from the company's own electronic catalog. Just like in a proper household, the same applies on the construction site: things have to be there when they are needed. "The road surface for the new freeway lanes is also on my list," says the certified business administrator, who has been working at HOCHTIEF since 1995. "But I won't order it, of course, until I get the green light for it if construction progresses accordingly."

Uwe Schenk

Learned from scratch

If you look up the term "learning something from scratch" in the dictionary, you might actually be referred to Uwe Schenk: His father worked as a craftsman at Holzmann. "When I was stumbling through life somewhat disoriented after being with the Armed Forces, he gave me a choice: 'Either you look for an apprenticeship or I'll get you something,'" he recalls. His father made good on his promise. Schenk completed an apprenticeship as a special construction worker/industrial carpenter at Holzmann. After this apprenticeship and several further training courses (including industrial foreman), he joined HOCHTIEF in 2000. He then studied at the HOCHTIEF Academy. In Leverkusen, Schenk is site manager for the construction section on the right bank of the Rhine. When asked about the most exciting project of his career, the father of a son does not have to think long: a caisson in Düsseldorf. This is a concrete structure on which an excavator is placed that digs its way down with the structure.

Philip Schulze

The man for everything

Philip Schulze is deputy. Deputy project manager. And senior site manager. He is the interface between project and site management. In a way, he's the “man for everything.” The 35-year-old has to keep an eye on the big picture: Deadlines, costs, quality. Sounds stressful. “True,” says the native of Sauerland, who lives in Cologne. All the more so because the person he represents is not only involved in Leverkusen, but in other HOCHTIEF projects as well - and accordingly a lot lands on Schulze's desk. Nevertheless, he enjoys his job. Incidentally, he chose it not least because of an interesting presentation by a civil engineer at a job fair. Originally, he wanted to become a doctor, like his father. But then everything turned out differently. The father of a young daughter, who is also renovating his own house, likes above all “to be involved in creating something.” For example, a building that will last a long time. In this context, the beautiful word “pride” comes up. “I haven't been in the profession that long,” says Philip Schulze. “But when I show my children in 20, 30 years what I helped to build, I imagine it will be very nice.”

Helmut Kereit

Caretaker and bumper

Helmut Kereit is the oldest on the site. His job title: senior foreman. Sounds like a boss. And that's exactly what it is. Kereit organizes, schedules, orders, controls, and takes care of things. At the same time, he is something of a buffer between the site management and the staff. When things go wrong, it's usually with him. "But don't worry. I'll get it sorted out." The way Kereit says it, people believe him. "They all know me here," says the man who has been with HOCHTIEF for more than 40 years. Too many construction sites to remember them all, but "I've liked it everywhere." Over the years, things have changed. The projects. The way of building. The people who create with it. "When I look at the work polishers of today, they do lack a bit of strength or confidence," he finds. "I don't have a problem at all if someone doesn't understand something and asks. But keeping your mouth shut and pretending that everything is fine even though nothing has been understood, that's just not on."