Page 14 - Port of Hamburg Magazine - 01.19
P. 14

 ■ FUTURE PORT
LISTED BUILDING AT FORMER WATERWORKS ON BILLWERDER ISLAND SITE
 New habitat for rare plant
14 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | March 2019
Even away from the Elbe channel, the fairway adjustment project is fast taking shape. Since November 2018 excavators have also been under way on the island of Billwerder – directly alongside Autobahn 1 and within sight of the North Elbe Bridges. An important compensatory measure is being put in place between Holzhafen and the mouth of the Dove Elbe.
Here a derelict industrial site is sensitively being converted into alluvial woodland. A wilderness is be- coming a first-rate nature reserve – where Hamburg Port Authority – HPA is creating a new habitat for the hemlock water dropwort.
“On this site we are fulfilling a condition laid down by the Federal Administrative Court, which sees the hemlock water dropwort as endangered and deman- ded a compensatory measure from us,” said Jörg Oellerich, HPA manager responsible for the Elbe fairway adjustment. In two former drinking water ba- sins of what used to be known as Hamburg Water- works, each roughly the size of four football pitches, within a few years extensive river meadows should form on sandy little islets. This will offer an ideal ha- bitat for the rare umbelliferae or Queen Anne’s lace. Nevertheless, the hemlock water dropwort thrives solely in the Elbe basin under tidal influence. The two basins therefore need to be connected via an
existing ditch with the Billwerder Bucht that is sub- ject to tidal flows. And good progress is being made here: Site roads were already laid during the winter, and the two basins freed from fallen trees. Initial preparatory measures have also been implemented at the inlet. Yet meanwhile the site is totally silent – one additional unusual feature of the measure is that any construction work on the island of Billwerder must be confined to the winter half of the year. From spring until after autumn has started, this refu- ge belongs solely to deer, beavers and a colony of cormorants – which is a special challenge for the HPA team. “We have divided the project into ten stages of construction that we shall spread over three winters,” says Carmen Eggers, who has taken charge of the project for the construction stage. Along with her teams, she is immersed in planning when the next step will follow, after September 2019, that is – and the first basin can be laid out.
© Kai Gerullis


























































































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