A reaction of Berlin Brandenburg Airport: TÜV Reports are neither top-secret nor unknown

The Berlin Brandenburg GmbH Airport issues a statement on media reports, according to which previously reportedly unknown TÜV reports reveal new construction defects at BER.

Today’s coverage by the Tagesspiegel reports on known facts. The monthly status reports on defects in systems which require inspection that are quoted reflect the current situation. The construction progress at BER and the respective situation relating to the approval of the technical facilities by the auditors are regularly the subject of reporting by managers at the meetings of the Supervisory Board and in the corresponding committees in the state parliaments, most recently at the special committee BER of the Brandenburg state parliament on 20.11.2017. In order to provide the building supervisory authority with up-to-date information on BER’s inspection processes within the framework of cooperative collaboration, the monthly status reports of the TÜV are also regularly made available to the building supervisory authority.

In order to finally ensure the reliability of the project, under the direction of new management the FBB clearly focuses on compliance with building laws, i.e the acceptance of systems which require inspection. For this reason, the construction project management at BER has made an informed selection in every technical installation group over the last few months and has had them deliberately tested and evaluated by TÜV’s higher-level experts. The aim was to draw conclusions from these test results for the other systems of the same type, to correct systematic errors and then finalise the systems.

The overarching goal of the schedule-based risk management is to determine the risks from the test results and to map them correctly in the time schedule, as well as to avoid new risks and to anticipate the findings of the test results.

The following already tested systems still show significant deficiencies:

• Fire alarm system (BMA), here at the Main Pier Nord the BMA 61
• Electroacoustic emergency warning system (EANWS), here the Main Pier Nord area
• Safety lighting as part of the safety power supply at Main Pier Nord
• Safety power supply at the Main Pier Nord (report still in preparation)
• Smoke control (ÜSSPS), here segment 1
• Sprinkler system

In addition, the conveyor systems and the flushing ventilation systems were tested without defects. The construction project management of the airport is intensively concerned with working through the mistakes of the past and resolving the remaining shortcomings of the technical installations.

The results of the TÜV test reports are regularly brought up to the Supervisory Boards. The TÜV reports are neither top-secret nor are the facts described therein unknown. They are a working document of the project participants, both in the FBB as well as in the companies and service providers.

In order to validate the scheduling, which has been binding since September 2017, TÜV expertise was needed as a necessary basis for obtaining better, more correct in content, and therefore also finally reliable, statements. The test results are located in the schedule and tracked in the risk management.

The overall schedule for structural completion by 31.08.2018, which was presented in September, is ambitious and deliberately precise. “The fact remains: On 15 December, I will propose an entrepreneurially responsible date for commissioning to the Supervisory Board,” says Prof. Dr. -Ing. Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, Chief Executive Officer.

23.11.2017