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trailer world issue One 2010

28      Issue One 2010 then be capable of handling up to 27 million passengers, with scope to expand capacity later to up to 45 million. Together with Eu- ropean connections, the intention is also to offer new long-distance flights. Berlin airport is particularly interesting for passengers from Eastern Europe. The planning activities took account of all the demands made in terms of modern security standards. For the pas- sengers, this means the airport will be one of short distances – from arriving by car using the new motorway link or the six- platform BBI station through to the check-in desk, security control and shopping prior to departure. The Airport BBI covers 1,470 acres of ground, cor- responding to 2,000 football pitches. In spite of the long and particularly cold winter, up to now work on the build- ing site remains on schedule. The topping out ceremony for the terminal will be held in May. Its impres- sive glass façade is already visible from afar. Procedures on site are perfectly coordinated: even now, work is still in progress on many different aspects, from underground con- struction through to installation of the elec- tric systems. At the moment, the HKL tractors are at work on the apron. A digger lifts the earth onto the trailers behind the tractors, which are sent to various different intermediate stor- age sites depending on the class of soil. Here the soil material is processed, treated if nec- essary and reused later on at other parts of the site. Meanwhile, the unusual vehicles have become an accepted part of the overall picture in the everyday life of the building site. But to start with, the tractors were met with scepti- cism, recalls Friedrich Schneider from HKL: “The customers struggled at first, it took us a lot of effort to convince them. It‘s simply strange to see tractors in this context”. But quality did the trick: “We really are completely satisfied and only have good things to tell”, says Schneider. “On other kinds of ground it might be a different story, but when it comes to the sandy, loamy ground here in Brandenburg, the tractors are ideal. What‘s more, they are reliable and need little maintenance: not one of them has let us down up to now. They just don‘t break down”. He sees no drawbacks with these ma- chines, apart from motorway construction where the trac- tors are not allowed on the mo- torway outside the actual site because of the minimum speed limit of 60 km/h. But apart from this, Schneider thinks that tractors “simply belong on the building site today”. After the “BBI project”, there will still be plenty of work for tractors: after all, there are many other con- struction projects with earthmoving work in the pipeline, in road building for example. With a water truck as trailer, the “green deers” are also at work elsewhere on the BBI project: during the summer, dust develop- ment on the construction site threatened to impair flight safety on the nearby runway of Schönefeld airport (this will be the northern runway of the new airport), resulting in a need for dust nets. But it was almost impos- sible to obtain them in the necessary dimen- sions. The simple, effective solution: “We just hooked up the water trucks and sprayed the construction site and corresponding material storage sites to render the dust harmless”, says Friedrich Schneider. “A tractor helps wher- ever it can”. (jg) Info  More information about the named companies can be found online at www.hkl-baumaschinen.de, www.agroliner.de, www.krampe.de, www.deere.de and www.berlin-airport.de Photos:Zappner Tractors working on the apron of the new airport »A tractor helps wherever it can.« Friedrich Schneider, branch manager HKL Baumaschinen

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