Town of Mechernich welcomes water pipeline construction work starting on 25 May
Euskirchen/Thalfang, 20 May 2020
A new production site for the Hochwald Foods GmbH dairy is under construction at the Obergartzem III Industrial Estate in the town of Mechernich. Construction work on the new plant is still on schedule despite the Covid pandemic. Commissioning is planned for 2021. Work on a seven-kilometre long water pipeline to provide the site with water from Euskirchen is now set to begin in late May.
Mayor Dr Hans-Peter Schick, who was involved in finalising the agreement with the Euskirchen-Swisttal Water Supply Association to supply up to 1.2 million cubic metres of water to Mechernich, welcomes the start of construction, “I’m delighted that the construction work in Obergartzem is progressing as planned!”
The unpasteurized milk that Hochwald will process in the new facility stems from members of the cooperative. Approximately 1,250 farmers of the total 3,000 supplier members are within the catchment area of the Obergartzem site. In future, 800 million kg of milk will be processed annually into high-quality dairy products by over 250 employees on the 21.5-hectare site at Industrial Estate III in Obergartzem. “The past few weeks alone have made it very clear how important secure local jobs are,” says Schick.
The production hall is now steadily taking shape on the future factory site. Once the shell is complete, work on the interior will begin, and installation of process technology will follow.
“Work is right on schedule so far. This is in part thanks to the collaborative approach of all those involved in the project,” says Detlef Latka, Hochwald CEO. A seven kilometre-long water pipeline will be constructed between Euskirchen and Obergartzem in order to supply the plant with water. “The pipeline will have the potential to transport up to two million cubic metres of fresh water per year,” adds Latka.
Water will be transported from two pressure zone lines of the Euskirchen-Swisttal Water Supply Association (WES), via a booster station in Euskirchen, to the site of the new dairy. At the same time as the water pipeline is laid, a conduit system including various cable shafts will be installed along the same route for e-regio (the operations management company for WES). Construction work on the pipeline is set to start on 25/05/2020 and should be completed by the beginning of 2021. Construction will initially take place in the Zülpich district and then continue through to the Mechernich area, behind the “Krewelshof”. Laying work will commence at Bleibach (Lindenbergerweg), cross the Bundesstraße 266 between the A 1 junction and Obergartzem, and then run along the B266 to the L11 (car park). It will be necessary to close sections of the service roads for short periods of time during the construction work. Appropriate diversion signs will be put into place.
