Berlin Spends $16 Million a Month To Maintain This Never-Opened Airport

As the EU ’s self - appoint ethical motive police , Germany publicly spanked Greece before this month for being so financially frivolous . Well , Germany has its own money trouble ! Namely , a catastrophe - penetrate $ 6 billion airport that the res publica continue to stream money into — with no opening appointment in sight . Scheiße !

This workweek ’s Businessweek engages in some A+ finger - channelise tocall out this German boondogglethat ’s an affront to a culture known for its precision and efficiency .

Everything was give-up the ghost great with the design and grammatical construction of the Berlin Brandenburg International Willy Brandt Airport until some higher - ups hitch wind of the Airbus A380 — the fancy extra - declamatory double - Dekker jetliner which requires much larger logic gate base . A mandate was release to make the airport large , dammit , including tear out an already end up terminal paries . Even though no air hose had invest to wreak the A380 to Berlin , the under - construction airport grew more and more ambitious , with the size — and costs — ballooning into a bureaucratic nightmare :

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The architecture and engine room teams struggle to keep up . As the terminal ballooned from 200,000 to 340,000 straight meters ( dwarfing Frankfurt ’s 240,000 and just shy of Heathrow Terminal 5 ’s 353,000 ) , they parceled out the oeuvre to seven contractor . That soon grew to 35 , and they brought in hundreds of subcontractor , say Delius . Several technology and electronics company , lead by the German giants Siemens and Bosch , struggle to continue control over the complex fervency protection system that included 3,000 fervour threshold , 65,000 sprinkler , thousands of smoking detectors , a internal ear of sess evacuation duct , and the combining weight of 55 miles of cables .

Each subcontractor began blaming the other for the various shortcoming :

“ Our part , the detection of hot air or smoke … is work , ” says Thilo Resenhoeft , a Bosch spokesman . “ The obligation for the dysfunction lies with somebody else . ” Siemens spokesman Oliver Santen confirm that the company was originally responsible for for build the “ automated fire protection facility ” and “ the control unit of measurement for fresh - gentle wind circulation . ” Testing in 2013 “ showed the need for reworking part of the system , ” he says . Santen declines to attribute responsibility other than to say that Siemens is “ responsible for the reconstruction of the fresh - strain circulation system . ”

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And then , impossibly , architects and technologist are place to redesign the airport WHILE IT ’S UNDER building :

Each addition ordered up by Schwarz need shift passenger flows through the terminus . That intend rebuilding walls , exits , emergency light , ventilation system systems , windows , elevator , and stairway . At one point , in 2009 , outside controllers urged Schwarz and his engineering foreman to shut down construction for half a year to give the architects and declarer time to organize sweat . Schwarz , Delius suppose , ignore them . Just calendar month before the scheduled June 2012 opening night , the pole was a batch . regardless workers stepped on and shattered Methedrine being install by other company . big equipment rolled across the terminal floor , scratching expensive tiles . Tempers flared ; low declarer complained they were n’t getting paid and threatened to walk off the job .

Will this airdrome ever be finished ? The opening has been detain for so long that a book has been write and published about the airport ’s saga . mayhap 2017 ? It ’s obvious that no one is experience too optimistic . Germany must expend $ 16 million every month just to keep the home from falling into disrepair — because god forestall anyone would opine that anything in Germany is less than consummate .

Photo: Jae C. Hong