Hafenstraße

Flood Protection at Fish Market

Hamburg

  • Client:
    Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg
  • Architect: Günter Talkenberg
  • Raising of the flood protection system by 90 cm at a length of 900 m
  • Sheet pile walls: c. 700 m²
    Masonry: c. 2,200 m²
  • New promenade area:
    c. 5,900 m²
  • Time: 2005 - 2006
  • Our scope:
    civil and structural engineering, preparation of tender documents

Market life may go on.

Crying at the tops of their voices, stallholders offer bananas, flowers or eels for sale. Every Sunday, before dawn, the Fischmarkt comes to life. Surrounded by the dark-coloured bricks and rounded forms of the flood protection walls, early risers join the last remaining late-night revellers at Hamburg’s traditional market beside the River Elbe.

Flood protection requires anticipatory action. For forward planning, based on scientific analyses of flood tides since 1750 and more modern calculation and measurement methods, new maximum high water levels were determined which took into account the potential occurrence of extremely high flood tides. In accordance with these, the flood protection systems at Hafenstraße and the St. Pauli Fischmarkt had to be raised by up to 90 cm.

For the execution of this work it was required that the design of the promenade and river wall should remain as unaltered as possible. The characteristic brickwork design was recreated, accurate in every detail, and also adopted for newly-created areas. Thus, after the reconstruction of the flood protection systems, local residents and visitors can continue to enjoy their familiar Elbufer promenade along Hafenstraße with its accustomed ambiance.

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