Concrete exhibition

Concrete has played a big role in the construction of the new € 800 million Messe Stuttgart exhibition centre in Germany. More than 300000 m³ of concrete has been used to take the site from farmland to an 830000 m² exhibition complex in just 31 months.

The project was split into two contracts in order to meet the tight construction schedule. A joint venture of Max Bögl and Leonard Weiss undertook construction of the seven exhibition halls. But the complex construction of the carpark over the adjacent A8 motorway was carried out by a consortium led by Wayss & Freytag.

Construction of the car park called for a number of different types of concrete and the consortium used a fleet of truck mounted concrete pumps from Schwing to place the concrete.

More than 65000 tonnes of concrete was placed, along with 13000 tonnes of steel, during construction of the carpark. The steel trusses for the car park were incrementally launched over the motorway but the concrete had to be delivered via a DN 80 line, which was up to 100 m long. The consortium used a combination of a Schwing KVM 24-4 H, an S 42 SX and an S 58 SX super long reach boom for the car park construction.

Schwing pumps were also used during the construction of the exhibition halls, which were formed by steel tube structures, with compression and tension elements, and filled with concrete. According to Schwing, the heavy reinforcement made placing the concrete in the tube a complicated task. A high slump concrete with a 16 mm aggregate, or 8 mm in difficult areas, along a special flow agent was used to ensure the work was successful.

Work on the construction is nearing completion, clearing the way for the internal fit out to get underway, ready for the centre's opening in autumn this year.