With a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony on 8 October, the construction work for the expansion of the Gerhard Schubert GmbH site at the company headquarters in Hofäckerstraße officially begins after a planning phase of almost five years. The relocation of the neighbouring state road L2218 will create the urgently needed space for the construction of a new pre-assembly hall and an additional administration building.
The construction work, totalling more than 30 million euros, is due to be completed by June 2022. The company will also cover all the costs of laying the road. The steady growth of Gerhard Schubert GmbH makes the Continuous expansion of the assembly areas for the top-loading (TLM) packaging machines is urgently required.
"That's why we worked with the city of Crailsheim back in 2014, at the start of construction of our current assembly hall Halle-1-Nord, to explore the possibilities of developing further building land for long-term planning," explains Peter GabrielManaging Director at Schubert.
After many discussions with the city, various interest groups of citizens, residents and environmental organisations as well as the regional council in Stuttgart, the first concrete planning steps and preliminary building enquiries were made in 2017.
In October 2018, the city of Crailsheim finally gave the go-ahead for the planning and realisation of the plant expansion. Under the leadership of Social & Construction Mayor Jörg Steuler and his department heads Stefan Markus (Urban Development Department) and Gerhard Schacht (Construction & Transport Department), it was possible to obtain official and final approval for the development plans, land use plans and construction plans for the relocation and new construction of Dr.-Bareilles-Straße (L2218) within just nine months thanks to the unanimous approval of the local council.
Strong partners in the realisation
The so far largest construction project in the company's history of the Crailsheim-based packaging machine manufacturer is a challenge that Schubert is tackling with strong and proven partners at its side. The entire planning and construction management of the road relocation will be carried out by the engineering office Grimm from Ellwangen, while the construction company Leonhard Weiss from Satteldorf will be the contractor. Günther Weid-Lachs' geological office in Fichtenau will be responsible for the necessary geological surveys for the subsoil and the ongoing geological monitoring.
Gerhard Schubert, founder of Schubert, will be personally and plan the infrastructure and the new buildings in direct collaboration with architect Jochen Fessel. The architectural firm Fessel from Crailsheim, which specialises in industrial and commercial construction, has been a planning partner of Gerhard Schubert GmbH for over 50 years, with architect Jochen Fessel in the second generation.
The following will be built 5,000 square metre assembly hall and a 4,400 square metre, four-storey administration building for a total of 300 new employees. Gerhard Schubert GmbH will also cover all costs for the new construction and reconstruction of the L2218. With a share of around 5 million euros of the total budget, this also includes Construction measures to improve noise protection, various ecological compensation measures and the entire new infrastructureincluding the construction of new cycle paths. All measures requested by the city and stakeholders will be implemented in close cooperation with Gerhard Schacht and in accordance with the specifications of the city of Crailsheim. The formal land swap will then take place after the planned completion of the road in June 2020.
Peter Gabriel praises the cooperation so far: "We are grateful for the support from all those involved, from the landowners to the city's specialist departments and the local council. It fills us with pride and strengthens our commitment to the region, the location and the city of Crailsheim.
