The project of my life
What is the fascination? What drives us? The projects we show here have presented our teams with special challenges. Many things turned out differently, some things went wrong. Always getting back up again. Because a solution can be found for every problem—often after hard work.
A playground for civil engineers
Simone Hafner was part of the project team building a section of the 345 km Taiwan Highspeed Rail between 2000 and 2005. This major project was a pioneering step towards a sustainable transport infrastructure in Taiwan. The rail line connects the capital Taipei in the north with the port city of Kaohsiung in the south.
"For civil engineers, the project offered a great playground and an impressive variety of construction methods." In addition to the technical range, cultural and religious characteristics also played a role in why this project became the project her life.
20 million euros in Athens every month
Between 1996 and 2000, Thomas Bünker was responsible for finance and accounting at Athens-Eleftherios Venizelos Airport. HOCHTIEF completed what was then Greece's largest infrastructure project in 51 months at a cost of around EUR 1.67 billion (DM 3.26 billion). "With the construction volume that we realized over a period of five years, a good EUR 20 million crossed my desk every month," recalls Thomas Bünker.
2.7 kilometers of spectacular technology
Dorothea Musik fell in love twice over while building a bridge in Scotland - with the city of Edinburgh, its people, nature and pubs. But above all, she fell in love with the "Queensferry Crossing," a 2.7-kilometer-long river crossing near the metropolis. "That's where my heart goes out to me as an architect." We accompanied Dorothea Musik on a visit to the "project of a lifetime".
Courtesy of the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss
Building a castle in the 21st century
Harald Eberhardt took a trip back in time to build the Humboldt Forum. From the façade to the dome, the senior foreman and his team rebuilt the Berlin City Palace. “Building a castle in the 21st century is not an opportunity you get any day.”
Floating Colossus
Matthias Karthe has taught an industrial plant in Newhaven in southern England to float. "Sinking a shell that has just been erected directly again is something you first have to dare to do." With his team, the engineer developed a floating caisson, without which the project probably could not have been realized.
Family adventure in the home Africa
“Managing such a large and interesting project, and in my home country at that, I just had to be there,” Felix von Platen recalls of the “project of a lifetime.” A good 20 years ago, von Platen was in charge of the water transfer project for HOCHTIEF in Lesotho, which included the Matsuko weir and a tunnel over six kilometers long. The technical challenge was by no means everything. The team lived in a camp and had to look after themselves at an altitude of 2,000 meters. Von Platen, now Head of the Technical Competence Center at HOCHTIEF, was mayor, clinic director and school principal all in one at the time. And to make a phone call, he had to climb another 1,000 meters to the summit. The engineer and his daughter Meike, who is now working as a dual student at HOCHTIEF, provide insights into their adventure in Africa at Lake Baldeney in Essen.
A1 bridge in family hands
HOCHTIEF Construction Manager Bettina Henneke shows her 95-year-old great-uncle her construction site, the A1 bridge in Leverkusen. A place that Paul Stern knows well. He helped build the previous bridge on the same site in the 1960s. “I'm continuing the family tradition,” Henneke says in the film “Project of Our Lives.”
The biggest thing for a unique person
Udo Töben has experienced a lot in 36 years at HOCHTIEF. Venezuela, Sweden, Hamburg—these are just a few of the stations the engineer has been to. In 2022, he experienced “the biggest thing I've done so far” during the expansion of the A6 in Germany: the transverse shifting of the 820-meter-long and 46,000-ton bridge over the Neckar Valley. In the film, he talks about his job on Axis 20.
Everyday life full of surprises
"A project full of surprises". That's how Christiane Zimmermann got to know subway construction in Copenhagen over four years. Here she experienced what teamwork means, how the challenges of a project weld together and friendships develop. The civil engineer appreciates the Danish way of balancing family and career.
Carved in stone
It probably was the most impressive relocation in the history of humankind—and HOCHTIEF concerted it half a century ago. The rescue of the Abu Simbel temple complex was of gigantic dimensions and developed into a race against time. For Hans-Michael Treiber it was “the project of my life”.
As Heidi Drills Her Way...
... through the mountain Jürgen Mielenz experiences some of the most exciting and intense moments of his working life. When it comes to the Gotthard Tunnel, Mielenz has his own particular type of tunnel vision. He sees himself standing in the rock cave illuminated by fluorescent lamps, the soil rough underfoot, looking up to the roof that was blasted free 15 meters above, and thinks: There are another 2,000 meters of rock on top of it. It’s hard to imagine.