A Stop in Stuttgart
Hallo from Germany! We just departed the city of Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg, a center for innovation and engineering, and home to several leading manufacturing companies including Mercedes-Benz Group and Porsche, both of whose museums we visited this past weekend. Located in the heart of the municipality is another top attraction: Stuttgart 21, an ongoing urban development project undertaken in the early 2000s.
In our pre-travel sessions on environmental sustainability topics, we discussed the controversy surrounding the Stuttgart-Ulm railway project, the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, and the Berlin Brandenburg Airport in Schönefeld (we will see the latter two later this week). Our private tour of the Stuttgart 21 construction site broadened my perspective of the engineering and political economy challenges responsible for the infrastructure project’s notorious delay.
The tour began with an exhibition walkthrough, which gave details about Stuttgart 21’s initial aims and intermediate accomplishments. Construction on the project began in February 2010 with a budget of €2.5 billion. Baden-Württemberg’s overarching goal was to expand the trans-European high-speed railway network extending from Paris, France, to Budapest, Hungary. Stuttgart city planners hoped to double its number of train passengers by the year 2030.
The main station would undergo massive renovations to accommodate through traffic and allow in natural light from above. And with about 120 km (74.6 mi) of tracks, half in underground tunnels, the travel times between Stuttgart, Ulm and Munich to the southeast would be greatly reduced — as would carbon emissions from car and air transport. Ultimately, the aboveground rails would be removed, allowing for the expansion of urban establishments and green spaces in the city square.
Unfortunately, a number of complications have set back the completion date of Stuttgart 21 and increased total project costs to approximately €11.5 billion to date. Large expenses have been incurred to overcome geographical/hydrological obstacles (for example, the removal of groundwater below the site) and to combat the ecological challenges posed by the urban heat island effect. The construction of supportive concrete pillars and intricate glass skylights for the station roof, the insertion of springs below the tracks for noise reduction, and the installation of structures along the sides of the tunnels for air ventilation have also required considerable funding. Nevertheless, each engineering feat is a testament to Germany’s incredible innovative capacity and demonstrates progress toward the modernization of city infrastructure — which we realized while gathered around a scale model and then engaged in a drone rendering of the central station.
We also watched an early promotional video for the Stuttgart-Ulm railway project, which led to a discussion about the sociopolitical issues brought about by extending the timeline and exceeding the budget for construction. Although most protests at the construction site have ceased, the city and state governments continue to wrestle with the responsibility for making up the €9 million difference in project costs, as neither has a specific contractual obligation to pay. Our tour guide acknowledged her (i.e., taxpayers’) indifference on the matter before leading us to the tunnels.
Equipped with red safety helmets, boots, and vests (as well as emergency communication devices on the off chance that the tunnels should collapse), we embarked on our journey belowground to the construction site. From there, we were shown the architectural and engineering marvels that we had discussed earlier, such as the arched walls of the tunnels and the narrow “manholes” along the tracks (through which springs were inserted). Our tour guide commented on the increasing proportion of female engineers in Germany and prompted us to consider the implications of the country’s broader demographic shift for urban development. Later, as we explored the tunnels, I talked with her about the Energiewende and Germany’s strategy for substituting Russian natural gas imports. ☺
Having now seen the construction site, I believe the Stuttgart 21 railway project is a worthwhile endeavor for the capital city of Baden-Württemberg. The restructuring of the main station should allow for extensive aboveground urban development and offer a more pleasant travel experience for passengers, who may enjoy shorter wait times in the thoughtfully designed, naturally-lit terminal. Stuttgart city planners like Herr Thorsten Donn, whom we met for a plate of Käsespätzle on our first night in Germany, may further improve urban infrastructure to create a more environmentally sustainable, “walkable and livable city” — one better integrated into the global economy via the new central station. I hope to return to see the finished project sometime in the future.
