Project Y

Photo: Business office HOCH ZWEI, Vienna 

Project Y 

The ultimate construction site 

INTERVIEW 

Dietmar Aluta-Oltyan 

1.2009 // The ALPINE Company Magazine 

PROJECT 

Underwater work 

TECHNOLOGY 

Precision work inside 

a mountain

Projekt Y 

Nördlich North of Vienna von Wien / Austria / Österreich 

SEITE PAGE 14

1.2009 

Andreas Eder 

ALPINE Head of Marketing 

Editorial 

Dear Reader, 

This is our first edition of INSIDE, the ALPINE company magazine. 

You may ask: What should a construction company tell me without getting bored after a few sentences? 

We have asked the same question. We cannot entertain you with stars and spectacular 

events. The radio furnishes you with the most important news every day and technical 

reports can be found in every professional journal. What is left to tell? Actually, it is very simple. 

Things, you simple have never heard before. Topics you always wanted to know more about. 

Minor details that will yet open up a surprising and wondrous world for you. The magazine will 

provide surprising insights into the world of ALPINE. No matter whether your are a technical 

expert or simply interested. And you will be surprised to see how much your life is influenced 

by construction. 

Our editorial will give you new insights into the first Austrian PPP road construction project in 

Austria which at the same time is the largest construction site in Central Europe. Let us impress 

you with technologies and innovations used for the construction of cooling towers at the coalfired 

power plant Neurath or read up on topics like economics, sustainability and safety. 

A report on the particularities of working in the Balkans gives you an insight into foreign 

countries and cultures. Find out more about this unusual sport cricket - quite an unusual sport 

in the German-speaking area and to ALPINE. However ALPINE has created new opportunities 

for this sport in an exotic location. Did you ever hear about professional divers? Do you know 

who is "Heidi" and "Sissi" and what they are doing in a tunnel? Did you ever taste wine from a 

concrete egg? We will answer all these questions and give you personal insights, tell you about 

lasting experiences and lead you into areas of fascinating research. 

Talented and enthusiastic editors made sure these pages are exciting and interesting to read. 

The magazine's layout was developed in-house and features the company's distinctive fresh 

and modern style. All issues are full in-house productions. With a good dose of passion we 

hope you feel. 

Enjoy reading it! 

03

COMPANY 

PROJECT 

MARKET 

TECHNOLOGY 

RESOURCES 

ENVIRONMENT 

// 

CONTENT 

06 An unused hour is a lost hour 

10 Underwater work 

14 The ultimate construction site 

19 Insights 

20 It's time for Viertel Zwei 

23 Close to the wind 

24 Including five-o'clock tea 

28 Sissi, Heidi and Gabi go on a journey 

30 Balkan Fever 

34 First milling train on tracks 

35 Insights 

36 Climb and press 

38 Precision work inside a mountain 

42 Glass beads for safety 

43 Insights 

44 It all began with a pork belly 

46 Using the sun's power 

48 Even the Romans would be amazed 

50 Constructive – Column by Alex Aichner 

50 Imprint 

The ALPINE Company Magazine 

Issue 1 / October 2009 

You can find more information at 

INSIDE.alpINE.at 

Ü

TOP TOPICS 

BRIDGE ACROSS THE DANUBE AT THE CITY OF TRAISMAUER 

Underwater work 

ALPINE constructs a new bridge across the river Danube at the city of 

Traismauer, located in Lower Austria. Professional divers are used for the 

first time in bridge construction and bridge piers are concreted with a 

special construction between two ships and not ashore - another first. 

10 

PROJECT Y 

The ultimate construction site 

‘Project Y’ is the first Public Private Partnership (PPP) project in Austria 

and located north of Vienna. This project is not merely demanding in terms 

of know-how but also in terms of logistics and project management. 

14 

CRICKET STADIUM DUBAI 

Including five-o’clock tea 

A typical game of cricket takes from four to five days and is never boring 

to fans. ALPINE constructed the new Dubai cricket stadium in only 28 

months. Its cross-vaulted roof style reminds of a ‘star in the desert’. 

24 

RECRUITING 

Balkan Fever 

The Balkan is the place-to-be for the ‘young and wild’ in the construction 

industry. In CEE and SEE countries many infrastructure projects are currently 

in progress. This requires highly qualified and motivated employees. 

30 

TUNNELLING 

Precision work inside a mountain 

Even though more machines and better and more modern technologies 

are being employed: tunnelling remains a dangerous and arduous task. 

Already in the midst of the 20th century three Austrians caused a revolution 

in tunnelling. 

38 

05

06 // COMPANY

»An unused hour 

is A lost hour« 

INTERVIEW He is ‘Mr. ALPINE’: Dietmar Aluta-Oltyan on success, responsibility, how 

he deals with failure and his family roots in Cisleithania. 

// clAUDiA lAgler 

You are at the helm of ALPINE for 

more than 40 years. What is it that 

fascinates you in construction? 

Building means designing and 

creativity. You can realize your 

ideas. I like it a lot. 

In your opinion, what caused 

ALPINE to become the secondlargest 

Austrian construction 

group? What is your share in 

this success? 

I have devoted my life to ALPINE. 

ALPINE was 11 million Austrian 

Shillings in debt when I joined 

in 1968. I saw a chance to build 

an expand a company employing 

better ideas, quicker reaction and 

skill. I enjoy taking responsibility 

and leading people. This was a key 

requirement to achieve what we 

have today. 

ALPINE is synonymous with top 

quality and reliability. There is no 

project that we did not complete. 

Not a bad achievement in 41 years. 

In your opinion, what are the 

most fascinating projects today? 

Infrastructure projects always deal 

with mountains and nature. In any 

event this is more exciting than 

constructing a high-rise building. 

Even though a high-rise building 

can be quite demanding, particularly 

in regards to its foundation. 

You never know what you will find 

when you start digging in Berlin’s 

sandy ground or in Salzburg’s 

lacustrine clay. 

Is there a project that you find 

particularly tempting over the 

next few years? 

Since 2001 we work on the St.- 

Gotthard tunnel. This project will 

be completed in 2017 only. Running 

a construction site for 15 or 16 years 

is a challenge, whichever way you 

look at it. The Brenner base tunnel 

is a project where ALPINE should 

take on a leading role. Let’s see 

whether we will be successful. 

We are fascinated by an unusual 

project. The main problem is that an 

engineer, with all the excitement, 

tends to construct a wonderful 

building while underestimating the 

economics and risk involved. 

A prime requirement for success 

seems to be the coordination of 

technical feasibility and profitability. 

Is that correct? 

Well, it is typical for this industry to 

not only run profitable construction 

sites. Many companies in the past 

have been known for this and collapsed. 

In the end we bought many 

of them. There is a saying: Grow by 

getting smaller. When it comes to 

acquisitions you don’t get two by 

adding one plus one. You only get 

1.8. To be successful you have to say 

good bye to some bad parts. 

07

08 // COMPANY 

»When it comes to acquisitions 

you don‘t get tWo by adding one plus one. 

you only get 1.8.« 

You hardly ever give interviews and 

you hardly ever to never mix with 

those that make it into the tabloid 

news. How would you describe 

Dietmar Aluta-Oltyan as a person 

to someone who doesn’t know you? 

In my opinion the press only 

produces bad news about the 

construction industry. The media 

should be more concerned with 

how to build a national economy 

rather than to damage it. The 

construction industry plays an important 

role in the development of a 

nation and is its engine in a boom. 

What about the person Dietmar 

Aluta? 

My motto is: When a problem needs 

to be solved you must tackle it and 

be willing to take some risks and 

not be too worried about whether 

or not it will come out alright. I 

take on a task. It is better to make 

a wrong decision than to not make 

a decision at all. I like my job. I 

identify with the company and that 

rubs off on others as well. 

You were born in Bad Hall in 

Upper Austria. Where does your 

rather unusual family name come 

from? 

My grandfather came from Cisleithania 

and was general director 

of the Austrian Lloyd’s company 

in Constantinople. The name itself 

has its origin in Romania. And still 

today you will find a county named 

Oltyan with a river named Aluta. 

My father moved to Austria, studied 

in Salzburg and Graz and married 

an Austrian girl. 

Do you have something like a 

motto in life? 

An unused hour is a lost hour. 

Have there been ideals that were 

or are import to you? 

When I started I have been surrounded 

by supposedly big names. 

They only smiled at the ambitious 

plans of the boy Aluta. Today, none 

but one of these names still exists. 

I managed to make my way. This 

might even have been an incentive 

behind ALPINE’s development. 

You were one of those that soon 

recognized the opportunities 

offered by the Eastern European 

markets. How come? 

We started rather early in Croatia. 

We planned a motorway in the 

beginning of the 1980s. Unfortunately, 

war interrupted the project. 

Even before the wall fell we started 

to work in East Germany. These 

early projects told us what mistakes 

to avoid. 

For instance: we never have bought 

an East-German construction 

company. We only took over the 

best people and not the burdens of

1944 1963 1968 2005 2006 2008 

Dietmar Aluta- 

Oltyan was born 

on June 25th in the 

city of Bad Hall. 

Matura (general 

qualification for 

university entrance) 

at the 

Polytechnic Institute 

in foundation 

engineering in the 

city of Krems. 

the past. From the very beginning, 

our East-European strategy was to 

build a local company with the help 

of a big project. That company was 

supposed to work independently as 

much as possible and without support 

from Austria. This worked out. 

What comes next in the East? 

There are many false expectations 

linked with the East. What applies 

at home applies there as well: 

You can make - sometimes only a 

small - profit but only if you deliver 

excellent service. But it is also true 

that these countries have an enormous 

amount to catch up when 

compared with West-European 

standards. They provide excellent 

opportunities. 

Looking back, what do you consider 

the biggest success in your life? 

It depends on what situation you 

are in. When I started it was a 

Joining the company 

(11 million 

Austrian Shillings 

in debt at that 

time – about 

€ 800,000). 

Advancing to 

managing partner 

at ALPINE Holding 

GmbH. 

big success to earn 100 Austrian 

Shillings. Today the amounts are 

different. I was lucky to have many 

successes and hope there are still 

many more to come. 

How do you cope with failure and 

disappointments? 

Failure is part of life and shapes 

a person. Failure never really 

threw me off balance. It rather 

caused me to be more determined. 

A battle is lost only once the last 

man died. 

What are your ambitions for the 

next few years? 

My objective is to organize 

ALPINE so that it works perfectly 

without my immediate operative 

involvement. We are well on 

our way to achieve it. I will assist 

ALPINE with my knowledge 

and experience as long as I enjoy 

doing it. 

Partner and 

chairman of the 

supervisory board 

of ALPINE Holding 

GmbH. 

40th anniversary 

at ALPINE for 

Dietmar Aluta- 

Oltyan. 

What about your private life? 

I am happy. I spend a lot of time 

with my grand children and with 

sport. Alpine touring and deepsnow 

skying in winter. Swimming, 

tennis, fast cars and mountain 

hiking in summer. I have tried all 

kinds of sport but riding and golf. 

How important is your home country 

and roots in this region to you? 

I love Salzburg and the region Salzkammergut. 

It is my home. Take 

away some of the rain and it is the 

most beautiful country on earth. 

Thank you for this interview! // 

09

10 // 

PROJECT 

Underwater 

work 

BUT ONLY FOR THOSE WITH NEVERS OF STEEL ALPINE constructs a new bridge 

across the river Danube at the city of Traismauer, located in Lower Austria. Only real pros 

work at or under the water. 

// clAUDiA lAgler

Supporting formwork of ‘Danube bridge Traismauer’ 

I 

t was as short and simple 

a task for Viennese 

Peter Haberhauer as the 

construction site was spectacular: 

The professional diver and his 

team went under water to ready 

the floating hollow piers of the new 

Danube bridge at Traismauer for 

their transport to their final position. 

A job for underwater professionals: 

One divers removes the 

cables that held the piers to the 

construction boats. The ALPINE 

specialists were next. The many 

tons of pier shells were floated to 

their predetermined position and 

lowered. “It was precision work and 

it worked perfectly” said construction 

site manager Peter Jungbauer 

about one of the most exciting moments 

on the construction site on 

the river Danube. 

ALPINE works since autumn 2007 

on the Danube bridge at Traismauer. 

It is the heart of a new road link 

between the Kremser dual car- 

riageway S 33 and Stockerauer dual 

carriageway S 5. The contract section 

covers the Danube bridge itself 

and two foreshore bridges north 

and south of the river - a section of 

more than one kilometre in length. 

ALPINE is the sole trader for the 

entire project. This is quite uncommon. 

Innovative procedures used 

by ALPINE for the construction of 

the Danube bridge played their part 

in the Salzburg company winning 

this project over five tough competing 

syndicates. 

Pier construction in 

the river 

An example of a new construction 

method: For the first time bridge 

piers are concreted with a special 

construction between two ships 

and not ashore. The water’s uplift 

carried the final concreted pier 

shells. “For this to work we had to 

develop detailed construction-phase 

plans and the weight of individual 

components had to be minutely calculated” 

Jungbauer tells us. Once the 

shells were ready the divers had to 

come in. They had to assist in floating 

the piers to their final position. 

For the first time bridge piers 

are concreted with a special 

construction between two ships 

and not ashore. 

The Viennese professional diver 

Haberhauer was excited to be part 

in the construction of this bridge 

across ‘his river’. The 60-year-old 

has thousands of hours of diving 

experience - and therefore mainly 

stays ashore. “The best has to stay 

ashore to help in case of emergencies” 

Haberhauer explains. Diving is a 

teamwork: one man is in the water, 

another is at the cable and tools and 

11

12 // 

PROJECT 

Professional divers 

The Austrian company ‘WiFi Oberösterreich’ offers 

courses for professional divers in cooperation with 

the ‘Tauchschule Nautilus’ (diving school) in the city 

of Weyregg at the lake Attersee. A qualifying exam 

is a must before anyone is accepted to this course. 

ideally a professional qualification (such as locksmith, 

metalworker or woodworker) is part of the applicant‘s 

portfolio – quite in addition to the enthusiasm for diving. 

The water is always ready for extra challenges in 

addition to the technical task at hand: strong currents, 

low temperatures, bad visibility. Diving is possible at 

any hour of the day or night. A single diving trip may 

not exceed four hours in length. Professional diving is 

very exhaustive and the equipment heavy. There are 

always teams of at least three people in diving. 

Ü www.NautIluS.at ooE.wIfI.at www.tauchEr.at 

yet another provides communication 

and oxygen. 

Bridge Piers instead of 

coral reefs 

Professional diving has little in 

common with excursions to coral 

reefs or romantic fishing grounds. If 

you want to go under water professionally 

you need good vocational 

skills, stamina, strong nerves and 

calmness. Professionals do not only 

dive at bridge construction sites like 

Traismauer. They work at power 

stations, reservoirs, sewage treatment 

plants, wells or excavation 

pits. They examine, drill, weld, cut 

- always in a hostile environment 

under water. Most of the time it is 

pitch black and cold. “Being a good 

skin diver doesn’t necessarily mean 

one is fit for professional diving” ex- 

Diving is a 

teamwork and 

the best stays 

ashore. 

plains Haberhauer who runs a team 

of freelancers. 

The divers were a tiny little wheel at 

this above-water and under-water 

construction site. Up to nine ships 

were used to construct the piers 

and the supporting framework in 

the river Danube. Two pontoons 

were anchored about 40 m from the 

river bank and formed a floating 

pier construction site. It was kind of 

a working raft. Additionally a transept 

was anchored nearby. The new 

kind of pier construction procedure 

had distinct advantages: only little 

space was needed on the banks 

- after all, this area called Auwald 

was part of the ‘Natura-2000’ nature 

protection area. 

new cantilever 

construction techniques 

The piers are solidly anchored in the 

water. To ALPINE employees this 

meat leaving the ship and working 

way up high. The supporting 

formwork of the bridge is constructed 

piece by piece in the classic 

cantilever construction method 

about 20 m above the water. For 

the first time in Austria, ALPINE 

uses newly developed DOKA cantilever 

construction carriages for 

the construction of the supporting 

formwork. What is so special about 

it? Four cantilever construction 

carriages simultaneously build the 

supporting formwork in both directions. 

Drivers will have two separate 

carriageways comprised of a 

driving lane and a service lane once 

the construction is complete.

“Simultaneous 

construction of 

supporting formwork 

in both directions.” 

Peter Jungbauer 

Construction site 

manager 

, INSIDE.alpine.at 

workPlace with a view 

An experienced team works on the 

supporting formwork. Everyone 

knows exactly what to do. Every 

week 3.15 to 5.20 metre long sections 

of the supporting formwork 

are constructed on both sides of the 

bridge pier. Advancing, formwork, 

reinforcement, concreting, hardening, 

pre-stressing - every step is 

precisely planned. This workplace 

provides an amazing view across 

the meadow land. A bit of a holiday 

feeling creeps into breaks - at 

least when the weather is nice. Below 

you the flowing river, bicycle 

riders on the Treppelweg road 

and beavers, herons or swans along 

the river banks. Large ships pass 

the construction site regularly - 

the Danube must be open for traffic 

throughout the entire construc- 

1,129.60 m 

total Bridge length 

31.5 m 

total Bridge width 

19/11/2007 

Begin of construction 

11/11/2010 

oPening for traffic 

€ 48.73 Million 

order value 

20 km 

travel distance saved for 

coMMuters 

tion period. “The sheer dimensions 

of this project make it quite unusual” 

Jungbauer says proudly. This is 

the largest bridge construction site 

managed by the 30-year old Linzer 

together with general construction 

site manager Franz Almeder and 

foreshore-bridge construction site 

manager Robert Avender. The Danube 

bridge will be opened for traffic 

in November 2010. That’s the end 

of a task for professional divers at a 

spectacular construction site. And a 

end for all the other workers too. // 

SHORTCUTS 

13 

PROTECTING TOADS, LURCHS 

& CO. unusual tasks for construction 

worker: A construction worker went 

out every day during the spawning 

season in spring to collect amphibians 

that fell into buckets along the safety 

fence and carried them to the other 

side of the construction site. number 

and types of amphibians were carefully 

recorded. these tasks were part of 

the requirements set by the environmental 

impact Assessment (eiA). A 

nature-2000 nature protection area 

was affected by the construction site 

along the river danube. this required 

that construction works paid great 

attention to the habitats of fauna and 

flora. Construction was only allowed 

from sunrise to sunset to not destroy 

the chronobiology. 

COMMUTERS SAVE 

20 KILOMETRES the new danube 

bridge at traismauer improves accessibility 

of Central lower Austria and part 

of the so-called regional-ring-north. 

it provides an efficient axis between 

stockerauer dual carriageway s 5 and 

the Kremser dual carriageway s 33 

and leads to the Westautobahn A1 

(motorway). this reduces the route for 

commuters by 20 kilometres.

14 // 

PROJECT

The ultimate 

construction site 

LEADING THE WAY The very first PPP road construction project in Austria in being 

created north of Vienna. This mega project places special challenges to logistics and project 

management in addition to constructing a host of buildings. 


// iNeS ScHMieDMAier 

15

16 // PROJECT 

kilometres of road, 76 

bridges, 4 tunnels, 13,000 

51 plans, 60,000 tons of 

steel, 1.6 million cubic metres of 

concrete, up to 1,300 workers and 

an investment sum of 933 million 

Euro: This are some of the key data 

of the currently largest construction 

site in Central Europe. A new 

road link is constructed in the region 

Weinviertel located in Lower 

Austria: Project Y, PPP Eastern Region 

Package 1. The dimension of 

this construction site is not the only 

extraordinary aspect but also the 

type of financing for this new road 

link. Project Y is the first Public- 

Private-Partnership road construction 

project in Austria. The name 

‘Project Y’ symbolizes the visual 

appearance of the three road links, 

forming the shape of the letter Y 

standing on its head. 

an end to traffic jaMs 

The new roads should make an end 

to the daily traffic jams north of Vienna. 

The Brünner Street B7 is used 

daily by about 20,000 vehicles. Severe 

accidents are a daily occurrence 

on this extra-wide country 

road. “Since the 2004 enlargement 

of the European Union the traffic dramatically 

increased in the villages 

along the street B7. The burden on the 

population is simply no longer acceptable” 

says ombudsman and local 

politician Erwin Pollany, knowing 

about the problems of the abutting 

population. The new motorway section 

and the two dual carriageways 

will considerably improve the safety 

and quality of life in this region 

and ensure a drastically faster connection 

to the Weinviertel region 

and the city of Vienna. 

construction Period: 

three Years – useful life: 

three decades 

In 2003 the company ASFINAG began 

preparations for this megaproject. 

In 2005 a pan-European 

tender procedure for the PPP 

Project took place. On December 

12, 2006 the company Bonaventura 

Straßenerrichtungs-GmbH won the 

planning, construction, financing 

and operation of this roadway for a 

30-year term. 

This company was founded specifically 

for this project. It is composed 

of ALPINE Bau GmbH, the 

German company HOCHTIEF PPP 

Solutions GmbH and the French 

infrastructure construction company 

Egis Projects SA. ALPINE Bau 

GmbH runs the company Arge

A container village in the city of Großebersdorf is the temporary workplace for about 130 employees. 

PPP Ostregion that is responsible 

for the construction of PPP Eastern 

Region Package 1. ALPINE and 

HOCHTIEF Construction AG have 

equal shares in this company. BonaventuraStraßenerrichtungs-GmbH 

will operate the roadway for a 

30-year term. The three companies 

mentioned above make up this 

company. 

first PPP infrastructure 

Project in austria 

Since a few years the Public Private 

Partnership is a model of cooperation 

employed by governments 

and private companies for important 

infrastructure and public utility 

projects. The PPP Eastern Region 

Package 1 is the first road construction 

project in Austria executed by 

way of a PPP model. ASFINAG instructed 

a private company – Bonaventura 

– to finance, construct 

and operate this road link on a 

long-term basis. In return ASFINAG 

pays a monthly ‘availability fee’ 

throughout the 30-year term. A 

so-called shadow toll (i.e. a toll not 

paid by the driver but by the government 

to Bonaventura) is added 

and calculated on the basis of the 

number of vehicles and number of 

kilometres driven. The availability 

fee is reduced if a lane or carriageway 

is temporarily out of order and 

unusable. 

extensive logistics and 

a tight schedule 

A project of this size not only requires 

technical know-how and 

expertise. Arno Piko, technical 

managing director of Arge PPP Ostregion 

points out that the biggest 

challenges of this mega construction 

site are its tight schedules and 

extensive logistics.. The first section 

will be opened for traffic in November 

2009 and further sections in 

January 2010 - after three years of 

construction only. 

In some parts this construction site 

requires enormous quantities of 

technicalities, machines and personnel. 

During some peak periods a 

total of four mobile concrete mixing 

plants operated at this construction 

site with an hourly output of more 

than 700 cubic metres of concrete. 

Temporary workplaces were built 

for employees who permanently 

work at this construction site. During 

the construction period some 

100 to 130 employees had their 

workplace in the so-called ‘container 

village’. It consists of 240 

construction-site container that are 

interconnected on two levels with 

hallways and stairways. Conference 

rooms, kitchens, sanitary facilities 

and a service room are spread over 

a space of 3,000 m2. It even features 

Responsible for smooth operation: Arno Piko, 

Project Manager at ARGE Region Ost 

a reception area and one employee 

is always present and responsible 

solely for maintaining its IT infrastructure. 

A proprietary data and planning 

management system enables and 

ensures excellent communication 

between all members of the project. 

After all: this construction site requires 

some 12,000 to 13,000 plans. 

“All plans placed side by side would fill 

one-and-a-half soccer fields” Piko 

17 

The PPP Eastern 

Region Package 1 

comprises a great 

many different 

buildings – 

currently the 

largest construction 

site in 

Central Europe.

18 // PROJECT 

SHORTCUTS 

PPP A Public Private Partnership is a partnership between 

government and private industry to realize public projects. in 

most cases the private partner takes over the project‘s planning, 

financing, construction and operation and in return 

receives a fee. 

PPP AWARD in 2007 the company Bonaventura straßenerrichtungs-Gmbh 

and AsFinAG received the international 

Public Private Finance Award ‘Best european Project to sign’ 

for the PPP eastern region Package 1. the international 

road Federation awarded the project the ‘Most innovative 

Finance Award’ and the euromoney Project Finance 

Magazine awarded the title ‘european transport roads deal 

of the Year’. 

points out with an impressive comparison. 

gPs-controlled excavator 

for heavY-dutY earthwork 

This construction site offered numerous 

challenges for engineers. 

These were quite in addition to demanding 

requirements on project 

management. “On this construction 

site we have to deal with everything 

the construction industry has to offer” 

Piko happily comments on the great 

variety of tasks: Streets, tunnels, 

bridges, sags, basins, noise barriers, 

service areas. This protect even includes 

the first mined tunnel in the 

Weinviertel region: the Tradenberg 

tunnel in the municipal district of 

Hagenbrunn/Königsbrunn. 

A total of 10.3 million cubic metres 

of earth must be moved to build 

the many buildings. To achieve this 

ARGE employs the latest in technology: 

Quite a number of survey 

teams are replaced by GPS. The 

driver of an excavator can see the 

future roadway on a screen and follows 

this virtual line with GPS support. 

The result: “We have achieve a 

PROJEKT Y PPP EASTERN REGION PACKAGE 1 

The project is composed of the dual carriageway 

S1 from the city of Korneuburg to the city of 

Eibesbrunn and from the city of Süßenbrunn 

to the city of Eibesbrunn as well as the dual 

carriageway „Wiener Nordrand“ S2 bypass 

Süßenbrunn. The dual carriageways S1 and S2 

join the northern motorway A5 at the city of 

Eibesbrunn. Once complete it will lead from 

Eibesbrunn to the city of Schrick 

Korneuburg S1 

very high heavy-duty-earthwork output 

with fewer personnel” Piko said. 

To be able to work as precisely as 

possible eight transmitters installed 

at the construction site correct the 

diffusion usually present in common 

GPS systems. “We have developed 

a reference system that reduces 

the usual deviations in GPS systems of 

two to five metres to two to three centimetres” 

Arno Piko explained. 

environMentallY designed 

noise Barriers 

Noise barrier walls and embankments 

and tunnels ensure that people 

living near the roadway are affected 

by the effects of traffic as 

little as possible. The noise barriers 

follow a uniform design - as does 

the entire project. 

The design of service areas, overpasses 

and noise barriers were 

meant to reflect the look of the 

Waldviertel region. Particular attention 

was paid to achieve a visual 

integration with this environment. 

Rounded elements and light, flowing 

forms are employed. Light-col- 

S2 

Wolkersdorf 

Eibesbrunn 

S1 

Mistelbach 

A5 

Süßenbrunn 

A5 

Schrick 

oured and wavy silhouettes integrate 

with the country side. 

Many aspects had to be considered 

in the planning of the noise 

barriers: “To prevent a tunnel effect 

on the driver with the resulting 

tiredness noise barriers had to have 

a non-uniform design. On the other 

hand, changes may not occur to fast 

to avoid irritation” Martin Wakonig 

explained. He is responsible 

for the Environmental Design of 

Project Y. The solution was flowing 

transitions. Different types of rock 

matching the environment in the 

Weinviertel region were used for 

steep faces and so creates the impression 

of a typical hollow way in 

this area. 

Once the A5 motorway section between 

junction Eibesbrunn and 

Schrick is completed the next section 

between the cities Schrick and 

Poysdorf will be constructed. The 

last section to be built will be the 

motorway A5 to the city of Drasenhofen. 

In 2013 the motorway A5 

will reach the boarder of the Czech 

Republic, provided everything 

works according to plan. //

insights 

PAGE 20 PAGE 30 

DIVA-Award 

Since 2002 the annual ‘DIVA-Award’ 

is awarded in Vienna to exceptional 

Austrian real estate projects. The 

criteria evaluated are architecture, 

innovation, profitability, marketing 

and how well the real estate 

is rented out. In 2008 IC Projektentwicklung 

GmbH was happy to 

receive this award for ‚HOCH ZWEI‘ 

and ‚PLUS ZWEI‘. 

Hydropower stations generate 

18 % of the world‘s electrical 

energy. This is almost exactly the 

same amount generated by nuclear 

power plants 

PAGE 24 PAGE 24 

red / hard / fast PAKISTAN 

CONVERSATION 

A cricket ball weighs from 155-163 g, has a cork 

core and is tightly wrapped in rope. Its envelope 

consists of four pieces of leather joined by 

a slightly raised seam. The ball‘s circumference 

measures from 22.4–22.9 cm. The traditional 

colour of a cricket ball is dark red. Dangerous 

situations may arise due to the ball‘s hardness. 

Fielders close to the batsman commonly wear 

helmets with face protection. 

CNC 

Computerized Numerical Control is used 

since the mid 1970‘s. CNC is an electronic method 

to steer and control machine tools and/or devices 

used for this purpose. This allows streamlining mass 

and single-part production. 

PAGE 34 

PAGE 28 

THE GIANT 

What are the languages spoken 

in Pakistan? 

Note: English is also in widespread use. 

Rotterdam is the most important European container port and handles 

about 9.3 million TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit – a standard 

container). It sits at the world‘s most heavily used waterway. Ships with 

a draft of up to 24 metres can access it. The Port of Rotterdam and its 

related economy provide about 320,000 jobs of which about 60,000 

will be found in the immediate port area. The port area itself stretches 

for almost 40 km from the city of Rotterdam to Hoek van Holland and 

almost covers an area of 100 km². 

PAGE 20 

viennese Prater 

Official language Urdu // 08 % 

Sindhi, Balutschi, Pandschabi // 48 % 

Paschtu // 08 % 

Saraiki // 10 % 

Hindko // 02 % 

The most famous attraction is the Ferris wheel. The Wurstelprater aka 

Viennese Prater aka Volksprater (People‘s Prater) offers even more. It‘s 

an amusement park with many opportunities to wine and dine. Take one 

of the many booths or choose the traditional dish of ‘Stelze’ (knuckle of 

pork) and beer at the restaurant Schweizerhaus.

20 // PROJECT 

it’s time for 

viertel 

zwei

VIERTEL ZWEI is a quiet and green oasis in the midst of this business area. One of its quality features is its 

excellent infrastructure. 

BUSINESS ‘HOCH ZWEI’ The Prater has been an area for innovative building 

ever since the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph. In his days it was the largest cupola 

in the world. Today it is an intricately designed city project called VIERTEL ZWEI. 

// iSAbellA DrAkUlic 

S 

omething special is in the air when one is 

heading toward the inner city and crosses 

the Viennese bridge named Reichsbrücke. 

The flagship HOCH ZWEI dominates and sticks out of 

its surrounding buildings with a blue-grey glass façade 

and an impressive architectural design. 

VIERTEL ZWEI is the new city district in the 2nd municipal 

district of Vienna. It has been created between 

the famous amusement park ‘Wurstelprater’ and the 

fair ground to the west, the harness racing track Krieau 

and the ‘Grüner Prater’ (‘Green Prater’) in the east, an 

very popular excursion place with the Viennese population. 

the Prater has an eventful historY 

This area saw a time of prosperity already. This was 

in 1873 when the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph inaugurated 

the Vienna World Fair and 53,000 exhibitors 

hoped between May and November for their lucky 

strike on this huge fair ground. Already at that time 

constructions were innovative. The Rotunde, the land- 

mark of the world fair, was the largest doomed structure 

of its time with a height of 84 metres and an astonishing 

diameter of 108 metres. A fire in 1937 completely destroyed 

the Rotunde. Today, the main building of the Vienna 

Fair (southern portal) stands in its place. 

The world fair had a lasting effect on Vienna’s urban development. 

The entire area became a giant construction site 

in preparation for this event: the first training of the river 

Danube, the opening of the Vienna water pipeline and extensions 

to the train and road network changed the city 

into an international metropolis. 

right in Middle of the citY and Yet in 

the countrY side 

The Red Cross, a florist and the ARBÖ (the Austrian car, 

motorbike and bicycle association) building occupied part of 

this area before visionary and builder Michael Griesmayr 

discovered it about seven years ago behind the Vienna 

fair ground. The remaining area was a fenced in ‘concrete 

desert’. An extension to the tube (line U2) was in planning 

only. 

21

22 // PROJECT 

Today, one of the most successful and most innovative 

office and green projects in Vienna exists on this roughly 

40,000 m² space: the city development area VIER- 

TEL ZWEI. The 80 metre high office building HOCH 

ZWEI by the architects Henke and Schreieck and the 

neighbouring building PLUS ZWEI designed by architect 

Martin Kohlbauer caused quite a stir. 

Typical design elements of HOCH ZWEI are the concave-convex 

footprint and its transparent architecture, 

mostly using glass and steel. The angular design of the 

33 m high PLUS ZWEI building forms a counterpart to 

the powerful HOCH ZWEI tower. A high degree of natural 

light (remarkable 75 %) creates a pleasant office 

feeling in the new headquarters of the OMV group. 

Another impressive and unique aspect this project is 

the green space and the lake. Use the lunch break for a 

picnic or a walk around the lake. Relaxation and recreation 

right at your workplace with a green view - right 

in the middle of a city. 

successful overall concePt 

The success is based on a well-thought through overall 

concept. The decision to build an office district was 

substantially affected by the planned extension of the 

tube (line U2). Key points in the success of renting out 

VIERTEL ZWEI are its ideal traffic links, the good connections 

with public transportation and the integration 

with the main traffic routes of Vienna. A 100 % utilization 

has been achieved even before construction begun. 

This was due to the location and the flexible floor plan. 

In 2008 the landmark building HOCH ZWEI and the 

immediately adjacent PLUS ZWEI received the DIVA 

Visuals of VIERTEL ZWEI / © beyer.co.at 

& 

FACTS FIGURES 

Vorgarten street / Trabrenn 

street (krieau district), 

1020 Vienna, Austria 

Area: ca. 40,000 m² 

rentable space: ca. 92,000 m² 

Area covered by water: 5,000 m² 

Jobs: 3,000 – 4,000 

begin of construction: 2007 

completion: 2008 / 09 / 10 

5 km distance to the city centre 

17 km distance to the airport 

Wien-Schwechat 

Ü www.viertel-zwei.at 

Ü www.diva.at 

, inside.alpine.at 

Award. This price is awarded annually to visionaries, 

owners and project developers that realise exceptional 

and innovative concepts and projects. The criteria 

evaluated by the jury are architecture, innovation, 

profitability, marketing and how well the real estate is 

rented out. 

on schedule desPite the econoMic crisis 

Despite the world-wide economic crisis there were no 

corrections necessary in either construction or utilization 

of the buildings. It will be built and rented out. The 

entire real estate project VIERTEL ZWEI moves on, untouched 

by the crisis. The office project RUND VIER has 

been completed already. BIZ ZWEI will be completed 

by the end of December 2009. Already in summer 2009 

the construction of 78 apartments was begun to fully 

utilise this area and give the district its final touch. 

A small decrease in demand was noted. Square-footage 

efficiency and cost effectiveness increasingly gain in 

importance. In the end however, quality will win. “We 

even noted this when renting out both office buildings. 

We are close to signing some of the contracts” said Mag. 

Sabine Ullrich, MD of IC Projektentwicklung GmbH. 

About 92,000 m2 rentable space will be available on 

this land with roughly 40.000 m2 north of Krieau (a 

part of a Vienna municipal district). The investment 

sum is 300 million Euro. //

closE to thE wind 

A wind turbine consists of a tower, a machine house with generator and of 

rotor blades. A wind power station produces energy by changing the wind 

force into a torsional moment (turning force) acting on the rotor blades. 

The generator changes mechanical energy into electrical energy. The volume 

of energy transferred onto the rotor by the wind depends on air density, 

the area of the rotor blades and wind speed. Wind speed increases the 

energy yield almost at the power of three. The efficiency factor is between 

25 % and 30 %, in theory even 70 %. 

A certain infrastructure is necessary to set up a wind turbine. Its huge 

components must be brought to their final destination. The manufacturer‘ 

logistics department takes care of that. Before a wind turbine is sold 

experts check out access roads in detail (particularly the radius of turns). 

Wind turbines are usually transported by ship when they leave the manufacturer. 

Transportation then continues by truck. 

WhAt deterMines the loCAtion oF A Wind turBine? 

The wind speed of a specific location is the 

most important criterion. There are so-called 

wind charts that depict the wind regime, particularly 

wind speed. These allow a first evaluation 

of the suitability of a location. Topography 

is the most determining factor for wind 

speed. The surface of the water allows high, 

undamped wind speeds. Topographically varied 

environments not only cause a lower mean 

wind speed but also influence wind direction. 

The topographical influence becomes less and 

less the higher one goes above ground level. 

Wind speed increases the most 100 metres 

above ground. The wind speed at the hub is 

gondola 

it contains the 

wind turbine‘s entire 

machine unit 

rotor Blades 

made of preimpregnated expoxy 

fibre glass/carbon fibre 

rotor 

Diameter: 90 m 

Weight: 36 t 

tower 

Height: 100 m 

Weight: 255 t 

23 

the most important factor for a wind turbine. 

The distance to a transfer point for energy 

produced is another criterion for the choice of 

a location. Wind conditions are measured for at 

least a year once a location has been selected 

to have full data and certainty on the actual 

wind regime of that location.

24 // PROJECT 

Including 

five-o’clock tea 

DESERT GAMES A typical game of cricket lasts from four to five days - 

including five-o’clock tea and picnic. Fans never get bored with it. ALPINE has 

constructed the new cricket stadium in only 28 months. 


S 

Soccer is good, cricket is 

better: At least this applies 

to Great Britain and many 

other Commonwealth countries. 

Scores of spectators are electrified 

with this elitist team game and its 

complicated rules. It is not unusual 

to have 50,000 or more spectators 

at one of the large cricket stadiums 

in Australia, India or Pakistan. 

Equipped with T-shirt, club scarf, 

cap and picnic basket they enthusi- 

astically start their club song whenever 

their team scored. Each team 

consists of eleven players - the only 

parallel to soccer. 

Plait-Patterned juMPers 

and fast Balls 

Tradition is held high in this sport: 

The players wear classic attire: 

plait-patterned jumpers, white 

shirts, long white trousers and a 

white cap. The small ball to be hit 

is red, hard and very fast. A typical 

game lasts from four to five days. 

Traditionally there are five-o’clocktea 

breaks and the spectators are 

equipped for a great and long 

sport event, picnic basket and all. 

„Cricket has many social aspects. 

The entire family shows up, spends 

time together and learns for life“ Siva 

Nadarajah says, president of Austria 

Cricket Club Vienna. Nadarajah

ought his love for this sport from 

his home country Sri Lanka and 

fulfilled his life’s dream in Vienna: 

He founded his own cricket club, 

got his own stadium and excited 

many youngsters for this rather 

exotic sport on mainland Europe. 

Fans are excited as cricket takes 

long to play and never gets boring. 

Cricket is a team game with attack 

and defence clearly separated. The 

teams face each other either as 

batsmen or fielders. Such a phase 

in the game is called an inning. 

The batsmen try to score (making 

so-called runs) while the fielder try 

to dismiss the batsmen. This phase 

is completed when ten out of eleven 

batsmen have been dismissed and 

the teams switch roles. 

extensive rules 

While even the game‘s basic 

concept is hard to understand 

for a laymen the details sometimes 

even intimidate loyal fans or 

fanatic players (see next page for 

the rules of this game). Founded in 

1787 the noble Marylebon Cricket 

Club (MCC) in London supervises 

everything to ensure the rules are 

strictly followed and traditions 

meticulously observed. Women did 

not have access to cricket facilities 

for a long time. 

join the talk aBout cricket // iMPortant terMs 

INNINGS // A round (phase) in the game after which the batsmen and fielders change rolen 

RUNS // Scores obtained when the two batsmen change position 

WICKET // Three vertical stubs topped with bails (short wooden cross bars) merely resting 

on top of the stubs 

star in the desert 

BATSMEN // The two batsmen on the filed called striker and non-striker. They wear protective 

gear (skin guards, gloves and helmet) and a cricket bat 

BOWLER // A field player throwing six balls in such a way that they bounce in front of the striker 

PITCH // A playing field of about 20 metres in length at the end of which the two wickets are 

located. it is the most carefully prepared part of the playing field. its grass is cut extremely short 

since April 2009 dubaisports-City 

is the best 

address for cricket. 

Not too long ago Dubai became 

the Arabian area‘s best address for 

cricket players. The new cricket 

stadium was inaugurated at the end 

of April. It is part of the world’s largest 

sport centre: Dubai Sports City. 

As part of a joint venture with Emirates 

Belbadi Contracting with seat 

in Dubai, ALPINE Bau Deutschland 

constructed this cricket stadium. 

25

26 // PROJECT 

cricket stars 

WASIM AKRAM 

Pakistan 

Best bowler of all times 

SACHIN TENDULKAR 

India 

Holds the most runs ever 

ANDREW ‚FREDDIE‘ FLINTOFF 

England 

Excellent all-rounder 

DONALD BRADMAN 

Australia 

Best batsman of all times 

ADAM GILCHRIST 

Australia 

Celebrated wicket keeper 

MORE ON CRICKET ON THE INTERNET Ü 

Marylebon Cricket Club // www.lorDS.org 

International Cricket Council // www.Icc-crIckEt.com 

Deutscher Cricketbund // www.crIckEt.DE 

Austria Cricket Club Wien // www.auStrIacrIckEt.com 

Cricket Club Velden // www.ccv91.at 

30 sec. // CriCKet 

The reason cricket is so hard to 

understand to a layman is the way 

this game is plaid and because 

its has so many complicated 

rules. America has developed 

baseball from cricket with simpler 

rules and a simpler form of the 

game. The batting team has two 

batsmen at the playing field called 

pitch. They protect the wickets 

which the other team has to 

destroy with the ball to dismiss a 

batsman. The batsmen can score 

runs (points) only if they bat the 

ball thrown by the bowler (a player 

from the field team) as far away 

as possible to allow the batsmen 

to switch positions. if they manage 

they score a point. A batsman 

is dismissed and the team‘s next 

batsman goes onto the pitch if the 

ball has been brought back to the 

pitch before the batsmen are back 

in their positions. The batting 

team continues to bat until their 

last batsmen has been dismissed. 

At that point the teams switch 

their roles.

Its cross-vaulted roof style reminds 

of a star in the middle of the desert. 

Up to 25,000 spectators can watch 

competing teams in this modern 

sports facility. The roof construction 

protects the seating from sun 

and wind. The field is under the 

open sky. The earth for the playground 

has been specifically imported 

from Pakistan to proved the best 

possible conditions for the players. 

It‘s almost a matter of course to 

have a special lawn. Cricket players 

in no way stay behind golfers in 

their care for the lawn. 

Dubai Sports City (located right in 

the middle of the desert) will hold 

even more facilities, e.g. a shopping 

mall and a multi-function stadium 

for soccer, rugby and athletics. 

a feel for the Ball and a 

fantastic catcher 

„The different versatilities required is 

what makes cricket so fascinating“ 

OPeNiNg MATcH 22/04/2009 

171 : 168 

PAKISTAN : AUSTRALIA 

says Michael Tschernitz, president 

of the Cricket Club Velden, founded 

in 1991: „You must have a feel for the 

ball, be a fantastic catcher, have a 

good eye, a fast reaction, an excellent 

condition and mental strength“. It is 

a fast and exciting game despite its 

length. Nadarajah points out that 

most of the time the entire family 

shows up. He says that in most 

Muslim areas women are welcome 

in the stadiums: „Cricket is for cosmopolitan 

people“. 

Games played according to the 

classic rules are called tests. They 

last for several days and most of the 

time are part of a series of games. 

Only a few national teams have the 

permission to play tests. The strongest 

teams world-wide come from 

Australia, South Africa, India, Sri 

Lanka, England and Pakistan. 

Cricket has not remained the same 

despite the love for tradition. One- 

Day-Internationals increasingly 

gained importance for several deca- 

des. The modern form of cricket is 

considerably faster - a concession 

to TV. The classic white dropped 

out from these games. Teams are 

dressed in their national colours 

and the ball is white. Traditionalists 

the dubai stadium’s 

cross-vaulted roof style 

reminds of a star in the 

middle of the desert. 

respond to these changes with the 

cry „It’s not Cricket.“ – which in 

Great Britain is synonymous with: 

That’s improper. // 

27

28 // MARKET 

SISSI, HEIDI GABI 

go on a joUrney 

LOGISTICS It sounds like three girls making a pleasure trip but actually is a logistic 

master piece. Sissi, Heidi, Gabi I and II are quite heavy-weight ladies – each of them weighs 

about 3,000 tons and with back-up is more than 400 m in length. 


ese heavy-duty workers 

are tunnel boring 

T machines (TBM) with 

an impressive propelling force of 

27.500 kN and a cutter head power 

of 3,500 kW. They press this force 

against the tunnel face and cut out 

pieces of mountain rock the size 

& 

of a breakfast plate. However, the 

steel colossus first need to get to the 

Gotthard tunnel before they can 

begin working. 

From the very beginning, the procurement 

process is a central part 

in all work procedures. An order 

is placed with the manufacturer 

of tunnel boring machines as soon 

as a construction company wins a 

tender and has it finally confirmed. 

Both, construction company and 

TBM manufacturer are pressed for 

time. The time between the placement 

of a job and TBM delivery

dates are increasingly becoming 

shorter. The planning phases are 

long - and each machine is one of 

its kind. 

The machine is to leave the factory 

as soon as possible as the storage 

costs are extremely high. The 

machine is almost completely assembled 

(95 %) when the customer 

performs the factory tests and accepts 

the machine. All electro-mechanical 

and hydraulic functions 

work. The only thing that cannot be 

tested is actual drilling. The technical 

acceptance is the first hurdle 

the manufacturer has to master and 

is part of a contractually regulated 

procedure. In most cases a contract 

is fulfilled only once the tunnel 

boring machine arrived at its final 

destination, has been completely 

assembled and performed the first 

few metres of tunnelling. 

transPortation is 

taken into account in 

construction 

Construction must already take into 

account that the machine will be 

assembled, disassembled and reassembled 

at its final destination. “30 

years of experience play their part in 

handling logistics” says Achim Kühn 

from the company Herrenknecht 

AG in the city of Schwanau (Baden- 

Württemberg). About half of all 

tunnel boring machines produced 

world-wide are manufactured by 

this German company. 

The logistics part is enormous: 

There are about 90,000 individual 

parts to a machine. As few components 

as possible are disassembled 

and the modules are kept as large 

as possible for transportation. They 

all must arrive at the final destination 

according to an exact schedule. 

“The hub of it all is project management” 

Achim Kühn points out. The 

precious goods are protected from 

dust and dirt by custom-developed 

transportation boxes. 

98 % of transportation occur on 

water, only 2 % on land. The first 

leg from the factory in Schwanau to 

the harbour at the city of Kehl (at 

the river Rhine) is partially handled 

with extra-wide and extra-long 

trailers. This is where the parts are 

loaded onto ships and shipped via 

inland-water-transport routes or 

via Rotterdam and the open see. 

at the Base of the hiMalaYa 

A considerably tougher challenge 

is a transportation to India. This is 

where ALPINE (as part of a consortium) 

constructs an 11.3 km-long 

headrace tunnel for a hydropower 

station in Tapovan-Vishnugad. 

The main bearing of a tunnel boring 

machines weighs 85 tons and must 

be shipped in two parts as streets 

do not allow a weight of more than 

60 tons. Not all machine parts must 

be shipped to India as the less sensitive 

parts are manufactured in India 

according to German plans and 

subjected to the same tests. 

First the containers or transport 

boxes arrive at one of the Mumbai 

harbours. One harbour only handles 

containers and the other only 

general cargo. The handling of containers 

is faster than that of general 

cargo. The goods belonging together 

however must be shipped 

together despite such differences. 

Custom clearance can take between 

4 to 6 weeks due to Indian bureaucracy. 

“Key to it all is the cooperation 

with the right shipper” Paul Bargmann 

points out. He is responsible 

for the preparation of all machines 

necessary for tunnelling. 

700 kM in 8 to 10 daYs 

Next comes the heavy-load transportation 

on the motorway. It takes 

from 8 to 10 days to cover the 700 

km from Mumbai to Rishikesh at 

the base of the mountains. In India 

a centre rail, if there at all, serves 

only as a rough guideline. Vehicles 

and bicycles are tightly packed 

on the roads and cows have to be 

avoided. The challenge becomes a 

real challenge once the base of the 

maintains has been reached. The 

monsoon may well sweep away a 

road or giant rocks may block the 

roads that usually are in bad repair 

or not solidified at all and soaked. 

High humidity may creep into container 

and damage machine parts. 

Instructing experts and handling 

insurance claims is part of the daily 

routine once a damage occurred. 

There is little space at a tunnel construction 

site and all parts must be 

delivered in an exact sequence - 

as must all material necessary for 

construction. A fourwheeler with 

a payload of 8 - 10 tons requires 

about a day from the storage place 

on the plains to the construction 

site in about 2,000 m above sea 

level. A heavy-goods truck takes 

much longer. “Once we even have 

lost a container on its way up” Paul 

Bargmann tell us. He adds “Once we 

had sent a search party we found it in 

the middle of the road”. Flat concrete 

floors usually exist for the assembly 

of a TBM. In this location the work 

has to be done on soft and muddy 

ground. 

However, this cannot unnerve Mr. 

Bargmann (in business since 1972) 

or his Indian customer. A former 

colleague once stated: “We have 

deadlines. The Indians have time.” // 

Ü www.herrenknecht.de 

Ü www.alptransit.ch 

29 

A tunnelling 

construction site 

offers very little 

space – meeting 

exactly defined 

delivery schedules 

is essential.

30 // MARKET 

BalKaN

GO EAST ‘Balkan Fever’ does not only refer to the identically named 

cultural festival in Vienna but also is the place-to-be for the ‘young and wild’ 

of the construction industry. 


U 

ntil the end of the eighties it was desirable to 

earn one‘s wings somewhere in Europe. Those 

who wanted to prove themselves at the end 

of the nineties subscribed to the creed ‘Go East’ and 

looked for adventure in the Balkan. 

However the geographic meaning of the term ‘Balkan’ 

and the national self-image of the countries concerned 

is as diverse as the cultures on the Balkan Peninsula. 

The Balkan region does however include the former 

states of Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and the 

European part of Turkey in addition to Slovenia. 

ALPINE takes part in many projects in the Balkans as 

the traffic and energy infrastructure of that region is 

developed intensively. Qualified personnel is a must to 

meet the demanding technical requirements and guarantee 

a timely completion of all buildings at the very 

highest quality standards. 

What is needed most are executives that can be sent 

into an area to build up their own team wherever they 

are: so-called Expatriates. However, how do you find 

the right candidates willing to work for years at a construction 

site at sometimes remote locations in the Balkans? 

Little social contacts compound a missing infrastructure, 

language difficulties and cultural differences. 

cosMoPolitan and Personal resPonsiBilitY 

Jivka Atanassova is responsible for recruiting at ALPINE 

with focus on South-East Europe. She’s always looking 

for employees at construction sites abroad who first 

and foremost meet one criterion: cosmopolitan. 

All previous experience has to be scraped when starting 

in a new country as one’s general experience is viewed 

completely differently. But experience is an important 

factor too. The more experience one has abroad the eas- 

ier it is to find one’s footing in a new cultural environment, 

the Bulgarian-born recruiter points out. 

Executives face the challenge to personally be responsible 

to achieve the objective: to complete the construction 

site successfully far away from home. Decisions 

have to be made and structures have to be built. 

The requirements for both have one thing in common: 

They are definitely different from home! 

It is not enough to find your way in the host country’s 

culture, customs, traditions and its way of life. The different 

attitudes regarding time and deadlines have to 

be taken into account as well. “It is not common in the 

Balkans to plan time and use schedules. It is common to let 

things happen” Atanassova tells us. While West Europe 

says ‘time is money’ the Balkan Peninsula says ‘time is 

free and we have plenty thereof’. The cultures in South- 

East Europe focus on relations and are very hospitable. 

It is a must to accept invitations to dinners (usually 

with opulently filled plates) as they are considered confidence-building 

affairs. 

60 executives wanted 

Peter Gfrerer is another expert when it comes to recruiting 

personnel for mega construction sites. He 

heads the department of hydropower station engineering 

in Tsankov Kamak, located in the south-east part 

of Bulgaria. A hydropower station is to be constructed 

at the river Vacha, located in the mountainous region 

called Rhodopen. ALPINE has a contract to construct a 

125 m high and 457 m long arch dam, extensively seal 

off the intake structure and build a power house. 

About 1,500 people simultaneously work at this construction 

site, 1,200 of them are ALPINE employees and 

the remaining 300 are composed of subcontractors, 

clients and local building inspectors. 

31 

“To be able to 

demonstrate 

their ability on 

a daily basis, 

skilled workers 

sent abroad must 

be independent, 

be able to assert 

themselves yet 

be highly able to 

adjust and come 

with abundant 

dose of self assurance.” 

Jivka Atanassova 

ALPINE Recruiting 

South-East Europe

32 // MARKET 

“Ideally the 

team stays at 

the construction 

site until completion 

– this 

is particularly 

important for 

the project 

manager.” 

Peter gfrerer 

At the beginning of a project this size 60 expatriates 

from Austria and Germany are needed as project managers, 

section construction managers, foremen, machine 

engineers, machine foremen and so-called assistant 

managers (mostly metalworker). 

word of Mouth is excellent ProMotion 

When a new area of operation is being developed an 

external team of consultants searches for the fitting 

personnel meeting various requirements. An expert 

team might already exist if a similar project with similar 

conditions has just been completed. Quite often executives 

bring in their tried and tested crew. “Word of 

mouth is an excellent means to get the right people to the 

right place - the network of experts in this highly specialized 

field is small - one knows the other” Peter Gfrerer 

said. Classic methods like advertising and continuous 

contact with Technical Universities also help to find 

employees. Educational institutions are also contacted 

at the location of the construction site. The ALPINE HR 

department actively promotes the cooperation already 

existing with the Technical University in Sofia. An employee 

from Bulgaria (a graduate of the university of 

applied sciences in Varna) brought in his fellow student. 

Now he too found work at the power station construction 

site. Then there are ‘modern nomads’ working 

on construction sites around the world. A drawback 

is that these employees quite often lack a bond with 

any particular company. When even little difficulties 

arise they quit. 

froM start to finish 

“Ideally the team stays at the construction site until completion 

- this is particularly important for the project manager” 

Peter Gfrerer said. “Often there are teething problems 

while a team forms. This lasts until each found his 

place” Gfrerer continues, “however, this phase is over 

and now the core team works together well for two and a 

half year”. 

Sometimes the construction period is hard to estimate. 

The hydropower station was estimated to be completed 

in 48 months. By now this has stretched out to 72 

months and Peter Gfrerer expects completion of the 

power plant by 2010. 

construction is the Motivation 

Power station dam at Tsankov-Kamak 

The work itself quite often is the motivation of employees 

working at a construction site abroad. It is a mixture 

between the uniqueness and technical details of a 

construction site and a good dose of adventure. Young 

people interested in collecting exceptional experiences 

with innovative technologies are equally welcome. The

Beska Bridge 

The construction of a new bridge is necessary between 

the cities of Novi Sad and belgrade near the city of 

beska as part of the full, 4-lane development of the e75 

motorway (part of the Pan-european corridor 10). it will 

be constructed as a so-called ‘twin bridge’, i.e. a bridge 

next to the existing bridge that currently handles the 

traffic in both directions. The new and old bridge will 

have the same look. The Design-build contract includes 

planning and construction of this bridge. With 2,213 m 

length it will be the longest bridge construction in all of 

Serbia. 

Power station tsankov-kaMak 

This hydropower station is located in the rhodope 

Mountains near the border to greece and is part of 

the Vacha river cascade. The construction of the 

entire power plant is technically very demanding. The 

project comprises the construction of the arch dam 

with all auxiliary buildings spread out across the entire 

construction period. A power house with a return-flow 

system leading water back into the river is included as 

well. included is also a new bypass road and an 800 m 

long tunnel. A potential reduction of the annual cO2 

emission by 200,000 tons is a substantial contribution 

to the protection of the environment. 

reason is simple: “there are not many chances to build a 

hydropower station” Peter Gfrerer says excitedly. “When 

I was a boy I watched the construction of the Malta dam. I 

was fascinated by the sheer dimension of the construction.” 

When he was given the chance as an ALPINE employee 

to manage the project in Bulgaria he simply couldn’t 

say ‘No’. 

Claudia Graber also couldn’t say ‘No’. She is construction 

site manager for the construction of a twin bridge 

in the city of Beska. This project involves three types of 

bridge construction: cantilever method of construction, 

feeder method and heavy centring method. She 

is almost done with her studies of construction engineering 

and construction management at the Technical 

University Vienna and has already a practical training 

in Slovenia under her belt. She never forgets what a 

colleague once said to her: “There are not many opportunities 

in a lifetime to build a bridge across the Danube.” 

allrounder & teaMPlaYer 

The 24-year-old is focussed on going ‘a different’ route. 

She already had various positions at ALPINE. She started 

in the civil-engineering-work calculation department 

in Vienna. Then she gained experience at the largest 

construction site in Europe (Project Y), performing 

technical office work at ARGE Ingenieurbau. She al- 

ready has developed a small social network with colleagues 

simply by working at ALPINE. Claudia Graber 

particularly values the backup she gets from the experienced 

teams. “This is particularly important when you 

are still young and already hold the position of a construction 

site manager” she pointed out. “Good cooperation is 

particularly important at large construction sites abroad as 

life and work centres around the project” Claudia Graber 

continues. Now and then problems arise in South-East 

Europe because of the ‘seniority principle’. Expressed 

differently: the older you are the more rights you have. 

“You have to fight hard before you are accepted, particularly 

when working with subcontractors” the construction 

site manager describes her experience in Serbia. 

The team works for a ‘decade’, i.e. ten days straight - 

provided there are no unforeseen incidents - followed 

by four days off. It is hard to estimate how long it will 

take for the construction site to be fully done. The planning 

estimates between one and two years. Forces of 

nature such as floods make the end of construction 

hard to predict. However, Claudia Graber and her colleagues 

are not going to give in until the bridge is finished. 

// 

“Good cooperation 

is particularly 

important 

at large 

construction 

sites abroad as 

life and work 

centres around 

the project.” 

claudia graber 

33

34 // TECHNOLOGY 

First milling train on tracks 

CNC CONTROLLED PRECISION The ultimate in technology world-wide 

allows economic and environmentally friendly handling of tracks. PORR-ALPINE 

AUSTRIARAIL purchases 8-million-Euro machine as an innovative alternative 

to the technology used so far. 

// MAriNA POllHAMMer 

Over the years rails are subject to wear and tear. This 

also results in faults of the gauge line and running surface 

and causes higher noise emission. 

Up to now worn rails could only be handled by grinding 

of rails. The new milling train however produces 

the predefined rail profile in a single step. The train 

(looking much like a locomotive) also corrects 

Time rail-surface faults. 

and cost saved 

in a single This high-tech machine is offered to railway 

step companies in Austria and Europe as part of a 

machine pool. The milling train can fix errors 

in rail surfaces and gauge line in a single pass. 

It has a total of four milling stations and two grinding 

stations. 

how does it work? 

In a single pass the rail is profiled by milling and then 

polished by grinding. In a single step deviations from 

the ideal cross section are handled and longitudinal 

waves removed. This results in a drastically increased 

efficiency compared to grinding only as much more 

material can be removed and therefore greater amounts 

of surface damage handled. CNC-controlled machines 

provide precision. This saves time and money and is a 

considerable economic factor. 

longer useful life for rails 

The increased use of rails by increasingly heavier trains 

causes all kinds of faults. The useful life of rails is 

extended considerably by a uniform removal of surface 

faults and by reproducing an exact rail profile. Further 

advantages of the milling train over the old method of 

grinding of rails is that flying sparks and the emission 

of dust is avoided. There are only five of these trains in 

all of Europe. // 

data 

Dead weight ......................... 120 t 

Wheelset load ........................ 20 t 

SPEED 

> Travel speed .............. 100 km/h 

> Work speed ...... 0.75 – 0.9 km/h 

CUT 

> min. ................................. 0.3 mm 

> max. ................................. 2.5 mm

insights 

PAGE 38 

St. Barbara not 

only is patron saint 

of miners but also of 

those using a tunnel. 

Each letter of that 

name stands for a direction 

to the driver 

in a tunnel. 

PAGE 14 

BARBARA 

Ausfahrt > Exit 

Concentration, continue smoothly 

Rettung > Rescue 

Rescue yourself along the exit way indicated 

Alarmierung > Alarm 

Use SOS points, keep calm 

Besondere Umstände > Special 

circumstances Use hazard warning lights 

Rücksicht > Respect for others 

Observe speed limits, observe traffic 

Aufmerksamkeit > Respect for others 

Observe sufficient clearance to other vehicles 

Beleuchtung > Lights 

Turn on dipped beam, turn off interior light 

Archaeologists at construction site 

When a construction company discovers bones, fragments of 

dishes or vases, splinters and pieces of metals during 

excavation work it often calls in troops of archaeologists. 

Salvage excavations are begun as it could be an 

archaeological find that has been covered by earth 

for hundreds or thousands of years. This has to occur 

quickly as downtime at a construction site is expensive. 

Construction companies quite often call in these experts 

even before they start working to determine ahead of 

time whether or not such finds can be expected. Small 

brushes and a pocketbook are a thing of the past. Today 

computer notebooks and special Archaeological PC 

Programs are used. 

1500 

SEITE 30 

PAGE 10 

PAGE 10 

FEMALE PROFESSIONAL DIVER 

Professional diving no longer is a man‘s business only. For the first time in Austria 

a woman became a professional diver. Petra Schönwald, drama educator at the Salzburg 

county theatre and long-time diving teacher faced this special challenge. Professional 

divers are subjected to intense stress as they work under pressure, in darkness and at 

extreme water temperatures. Discipline and skill are required to perform the needed tasks 

under water. 

ALPINE is sole trader of the 

power plant construction 

site Tsankov Kamak and 

coordinates up to 1,500 

worker at the same time. 

For the most part these 

teams have been recruited 

from this Region. 

A total of 218 regions in Austria have been nominated 

in 2009 as a nature protection area, 148 

of which have been legally declared as such. About 

12 % of the entire area of Austria is officially 

declared as ‘European nature protection area’. The 

European Union regulates the protection of habitats 

and the protection of species. The main objective 

of the Fauna-Flora-Habitat-Directive is the 

development of a Europe-wide network of nature 

protection areas called ‘Natura 2000’. The network 

of nature protection areas is to permanently 

safeguard natural habitats in Europe. The Auwald 

region of the Project Danube-Bridge-Traismauer is 

a Natura 2000 nature protection area. 

PAGE 42 

Warning 

reflections 

A new type of visibility-warning-clothing 

made of extralight 

plastic fleece provides 

better safety and comprehensive 

protection. This EN tested 

visibility-warning-clothing is coated 

with intensively fluorescent colours, 

additional retro-reflecting stripes 

and is extremely eye-catching - at 

day and night. DEKRA Automobil 

Stuttgart confirmed that the 

Safety-Vision safety coat in particular 

provides a visibility from a 

distance of 200 m (regular safety 

vest: 100 m). As a comparison: the 

breaking distance at a speed of 150 

km/h is 200 m.

36 // 

TECHNOLOGY 

“We were able to complete the project with 

excellent quality six weeks ahead of 

schedule because of the optimized ALPINE 

high-performance concrete.” 

Holger Mosebach 

Project manager for the cooling towers at the power plant Neurath 

and manager of ALPINE Competence Centre for Building Material and 

Concrete Technology in Dortmund

climb and press 

INNOVATIONS The cooling towers of the power plant Neurath grew rapidly 

because of hydraulically climbing scaffolding and acid-resistant high-performance 

concrete developed by experts. A tribute to ALPINE’s pioneering spirit. 

// MAriNA POllHAMMer 

A 

n extremely steep and overhanging wall and 

a single and decisive question: how to get up 

there as quickly and safely as possible? Working 

at the Neurath cooling towers is comparable with 

extreme mountaineering conditions of a daring expedition. 

Two natural-draft cooling towers were built 

in a so-called climb-and-build method. They towers 

sits on a ring foundation made of reinforced concrete 

with a diameter of 118 m. In the middle they reduce to 

about half of that diameter. Once complete they reach 

a height of 172 m - quite a dizzying height. 

The climbing scaffolding is mounted inside the towers 

at the lower edge beam. 54 climbing towers are hooked 

into it on its facing side and are complemented with 

working platforms hooked in between. Hydraulic cylinders 

automatically adjust the climbing scaffolding to 

the hyperbolic shape of the cooling tower as construction 

progresses. 

fast and flexiBle cliMBing 

Climbing steps of 1.20 m at a time increase the progress 

of construction. There is no need to manually adjust the 

scaffolding during the climbing process. This unique 

solution reduces the construction period by 20% when 

compared to other scaffolding systems available on the 

market. At the same time this system increases safety 

at work. 

outstanding concrete PerforMance 

ALPINE developed and used an optimized and acid-resistant 

high-performance concrete. A special mixture 

made it so resistant that it was not necessary to give it 

a protective coating and still be dense enough to withstand 

harmful influences. This innovation saves a total 

of six months in construction, counting construction 

time saved and unnecessary re-coatings. It is a significant 

economic factor in planning these projects. 

innovative climbing scaffolding 

saves 20 % construction time 

The build quality of the high-performance concrete 

was further optimised through the use of a high-performance 

plasticiser. This extremely robust concrete 

has perfect fresh-concrete and hardened-concrete 

characteristics for the construction of cooling towers. 

This concrete partially consists of extremely fine 

ground cement, ultra-fine micro-nano-sized additives 

and a high-performance PCE based plasticiser. These 

ultra-fine additives have been produced specifically for 

the Neurath project in Canada and were then delivered 

to the construction site. // 

37


Precision work 

inside a mountain

TUNNELLING Even though more machines and better and more modern 

technologies are being employed: tunnelling remains a dangerous and arduous 

task. It’s like a route leading through unknown country and taken in small steps. 


I 

t is hot, dusty, loud and 

the air so thick you might 

as well cut it: Working 

in tunnelling and being particular 

don‘t go together well. The working 

environment is anything but cosy 

when people, step by step, dig their 

way through rock to mine a new 

street or railway line. Tunnelling 

remains a dangerous and arduous 

task despite the use of machines. 

This is very true for the St.- 

Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland. 

Once completed in 2015 it will be 

the longest tunnel in the world. 

57 kilometres through a gigantic 

mountain range in the Central Alps. 

More and more tunnels are being 

built through mountain ranges the 

denser the traffic and trading system 

grows. The tunnels are either 

mined or built using the open cut 

tunnelling method. Even though 

we live in a time where everything 

seems to have been discovered 

a project like the St.-Gotthard 

railway tunnel poses an incredible 

challenge to civil engineers. 

Century-old and tried and tested 

methods meet high-tech procedures 

that determine which route 

the many tons of machinery are 

to follow when eating their way 

through the mountain or where a 

shaft is to be pushed ahead, step by 

step, with explosives. 

Tunnelling technologies have 

changed in the course of time. Procedures 

are being optimised, more 

powerful machines and devices 

employed and easier-to-handle 

concrete used. „The art is to build 

fast, cheap and safe. Safety at work 

39


is above all“ Josef Arnold explains, 

MD at the ALPINE-group branch 

Beton- und Monierbau GmbH, 

specialised in tunnelling. 

austrians lead the waY in 

tunnelling 

In the midst of the 20 th century 

three Austrians – Ladislaus von 

Rabcewicz, Leopold Müller and 

Franz Pacher – caused a revolution 

in tunnelling: They represent 

what is called the New Austrian 

the closely-knit (male) 

miners’ society long held the 

belief that women meant 

bad luck in mining. 

Tunnel Method in which shotcrete 

and anchors immediately secure 

cavities cut into the mountain. The 

surrounding rock and this artificial 

construction form a frictional 

connection. Today, the New Austrian 

Tunnel Method is a standard 

procedure and used world-wide. It 

allows a relatively slim construction. 

Once the first step is done 

the excavated tunnel is sealed and 

finished with interior shells, road 

and safety technology. 

In the past wooden constructions 

secured the excavated tunnel 

shafts. This was before the advent 

of shotcrete. Back-filled natural 

stone vaults were then added in 

a second step to produce a strong 

tunnel shell. It was time consuming 

and expensive to bring all necessary 

wood inside the mountain and to 

then dismantle and remove it again. 

Blasting, drilling, Milling, 

digging 

There are several ways of tunnelling, 

mainly depending on the 

existing geology. Blasting is used in 

uniformly hard rock - such as granite. 

Loose rock is dug out. Other 

tunnelling methods employed are 

drilling and milling. Gigantic tunnel 

boring machines are used at the 

St.-Gotthard tunnel. The workers 

christened them ‘Heidi’ and ‘Sissi’. 

These machines have huge roller 

bits and press against the rock with 

incredible force, grinding the hard 

rock of the Central Alps into platesize 

pieces. 

However, a roadway (a route) must 

be determined even before the 

tunnel boring machines can start 

to work. Despite the fact that drivers 

or train passengers often have 

the impression that the tunnel is 

a straight line through the mountain: 

The route through a mountain 

circumvents geological danger 

zones and takes traffic necessities 

into account. It’s hardly ever a 

straight line. The St.-Gotthard tunnel 

for instance follows a long and 

stretched ‘S’. 

circuMventing 

danger Zones 

Geologists and seismologists take 

their turn before miners attack the 

rock. They examine the mountain, 

search for possible faults and areas 

with broken rock. The roadway 

must circumvent large-scale 

danger zones. “Nobody intentionally 

drives into a bad rock formation” 

Arnold points out succinctly. The 

surface geology tells experts what 

to expect inside: hard gneiss or 

almost crumbling Dolomite Alp 

sugar. Even though seismological 

measurements, test drilling and 

observation provide relatively reliable 

predictions on what to expect 

beneath the surface: Mountains are 

not made of glass - and always are 

ready for a geological surprise. 

The actual construction can finally 

begin once the future route has 

been fixed, proceedings with 

authorities completed and the area 

concerned released. The official 

opening of the tunnelling work is a 

celebration for the entire crew. In 

the coming months the crew will 

work its way through the mountain 

in shifts. The hard tunnelling work 

is mostly performed by men. For 

centuries, women were not allowed 

inside a mountain. The closely-knit 

(male) miners’ society long held the 

belief that women meant bad luck 

in mining. However, in the mean 

time there are female engineers, 

female surveyors and female geologists 

entering this field - yet only 

a few men - who therefore are 

gravely concerned. // 

we have asked // how do Miners know inside a 

Mountain which waY to dig? 

it requires precise measurement procedures and high-tech laser technology as well as 

experienced tunnelling engineers and surveyors. concrete piers close to the tunnel entrance 

are fix points used to generate three-dimensional coordinates for the workers below the 

surface. The tunnel boring machines are guided by red laser beams. The working parties 

meat exactly in the middle of a mountain that is usually attacked from both sides – 

provided everything goes according to plan. “This is not a problem at all. We work with 

a tolerance of a few centimetres only” Josef Arnold dispels the myth that crews occasionally 

miss each other.

SHORTCUTS 

CONCRETE MIXING PLANT ON 

A TRAIN A concrete mixing plant on 

a train will be used from autumn 2010 

to install railway engineering equipment 

in the 57-km-long st.-Gotthard 

base tunnel. the train has 24 wagons 

and two locomotives with 1,500 hP 

each and a final production capacity 

of 225 m3 per day. this train has many 

advantages: no other trade working in 

the tunnel will be interrupted as only 

one run into and out of the tunnel is 

necessary per day. the concrete can 

be produced just in time and in exactly 

the needed quality and quantity. in 

2008 AlPine (as part of a tender consortium) 

won the contract to construct 

the railway engineering equipment of 

the st.-Gotthard base tunnel. this contract 

is comprised of the construction 

and/or installation of tracks, power 

supply, traffic control system, signalling 

system, tunnel control system, communication 

system and safety system. 

MODERN NOMADS Good miners are 

in demand. despite modern technology 

and the extensive use of machinery 

what counts in particular is experience 

and excellent training. tunnelling 

workers must be diligent, motivated, 

experienced and above all: Mobile. 

they work at many international 

projects and move as modern nomads 

from construction site to construction 

site. A miner works in shifts of eight 

hours each. A construction site usually 

only sleeps on st. Barbara‘s day, at 

Christmas and at easter. 

A GODMOTHER FOR THE TUNNEL 

IS AN OLD TRADITION tradition 

is important in modern tunnelling 

too. there is no start of tunnelling 

without a godmother for the tunnel: 

the godmother is considered the 

representative of the miners’ patron 

saint st. Barbara. the celebrations at st. 

Barbara‘s day on 4th of december traditionally 

include a prayer and a festival 

for the crew. there are festivals that no 

one can do without: start of tunnelling, 

breakthrough - when both sides of the 

tunnel meet and the opening of the 

tunnel. 

Ü www.alptraNSIt.ch 

Ü www.alpENtuNNEl.DE 

41


Glass beads for safety 

CAT’S EYE PRINCIPLE It seems paradox – glass beads (as perfectly round as possible) 

fixed to the road can increase road safety. This is because of an optical characteristic which 

also is believed to make the eyes of cats glow. 


Two different 

technologies 

are typically 

employed in pro- 

ducing reflecting 

material – the 

glass-bead meth- 

od and applying 

retro-reflecting 

micro prisms. 

M 

any might have had their 

adventure of a ‘special 

kind’ in the dark or at 

night: Two points a few millimetres 

apart mysteriously glow in the dark 

and disappear as quickly as they 

showed up. Once breathing is back 

to normal it is usually discovered 

that it only was our favourite pet. 

Its eyes sometimes give us spooky 

fantasies. The so-called ‘glowing 

carpet’ (Latin: Tapetum lucidum) is 

the culprit. It is a strongly reflective 

layer of cells behind the eye’s 

retina. It reflects back the light that 

has already passed the retina. This 

layer gives a cat better night vision 

and also reflects the light that hits 

its eyes in the dark - and makes 

them ‘glow’. 

retro-reflection as 

safetY factor 

In physics this characteristic is 

called retro-reflection – this is 

when catadioptric (mirroring and 

refractive) elements reverse the 

direction of incoming light back to 

its source point. The production of 

retro-reflective materials utilizes 

this characteristic. It is applied to 

safety clothing and surface markings 

to increase visibility. These 

materials have an important advantage: 

they reflect back the light in 

exactly that direction where the 

light came from. 

aPPlication in safetY 

clothing 

If the headlights of a car hit the 

reflecting material of the clothing 

of a construction worker the 

light is reflected back exactly to 

the approaching car. A person at 

the side of a road is therefore visible 

to the driver sooner and from 

a greater distance. This is of great 

advantage at construction sites, 

motorways and state roads where 

vehicles travel at great speeds. This 

increased safety factor also applies 

to surface markings as the use of 

glass beads makes them glow when 

hit by a beam of light. Glass beads 

sticking out of the surface markings 

far enough reliably reflect incoming 

light and provide good visibility of 

the markings even at bad visibility, 

in the dark, during rain or fog. 

glass Beads Provide 100 

Percent reflection 

Reflective material is used with 

safety clothing, traffic signs, street 

markings, promotion and bicycle 

reflectors. 

Even though a cat’s eye on bicycle 

has little in common with the eye of 

a ‘real’ cat they yet follow the same 

principle of retro-reflection. //

insights 

PAGE 30 

A survey was conducted with the 

500 largest Austrian companies 

entitled Recruiting Trends 2009 

Austria. To save costs most companies 

use online forms for a cost 

efficient personnel management. 

By now already ¾ of all applications 

are made electronically 

with large Austrian companies. The 

recruiting process is thus made 

more efficient and cost effective. A 

mutual advantage is the fact that 

the time between the placement of 

an ad and receipt of applications got 

shorter. 

PAGE 44 

Trading 

Places 

The Duke brothers – two brokers 

in commodities futures – gamble 

high and trade (switch) the life of a 

beggar with that of their managing 

director. In the end the beggar and 

MD join forces and bankrupt the 

Dukes. In 1983 the film by Eddie 

Murphy gives an insight into the 

harsh reality of speculation at 

a stock exchange. 

PAGE 30 

EU BALKAN ★& 

The EU Commission proposed recently that 

people from Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro 

may enter EU countries without a visa. 

At this point in time not all security requirements 

can be fulfilled. According to the EU Commission this 

problem will be solved by the beginning of 2010. 

PAGE 46 

Andalusia 

Andalusia is the most southern of all 17 

autonomous districts located on the mainland 

of Spain. 

This region is best known for 

its music, the flamenco. 

The language spoken is 

Andalusian. This dialect is 

phonetically very different 

from the official language of 

Spain. 

Andalusia is a region 

strongly shaped by tourism. 

PAGE 14 

PAGE 48 

sankt 

laurent 

2006 

‚Sankt Laurent‘ is the name 

of the first Austrian wine 

‘hatched’ in concrete eggs. 

According to the traditional sowing 

calendar of the ‘moon-gardener’ 

Maria Thun, the concreteegg 

wine has been bottled on a 

particularly ‘fruity day’ – under the 

sign of the grape. It seems to have 

worked out. When uncorking a 

bottle of Sankt Laurent 2006 the 

fragrance of dark berries and 

prunes is unmistakable. 

SHaDOW TOll 

In a ‘Shadow Toll’ model the project company is responsible for construction, for 

maintenance and for operation of the road infrastructure. The shadow toll provides 

the advantage that the user of the infrastructure does not have to pay a toll to the project 

company. The traffic volume is measured and the government pays the toll to the company 

accordingly. The shadow toll is particularly suited for infrastructures that would allow the 

collection of a toll but which make the toll risk lower by collecting a shadow toll.

44 // RESOURCES 

it all began with 

a pork belly 

RESOURCES For ages it was possible to become incredibly rich or poor in 

no time at all when trading with raw material. The driving force behind this 

phenomenon is the fact that resources on earth are limited. Plus the mechanism 

of supply and demand. 

// ANDreAS eDer 

A 

n almost impenetrable wall of noise. Shouts 

mix with loud grumbling and unintelligible 

fragments of words. Figures and strange 

terms are called out. Arms fly up in the air and are lowered 

quickly in some other place. The atmosphere is 

that of a soccer stadium in the 89 th minute with the 

home club one goal behind. The air is filled with the 

stench of immorally high profits. And that of devastating 

losses. All caused by deep-frozen pork belly. This 

raw material marked a turbulent era in the history of 

trading in commodities futures. The 1980s film ‘Trading 

Places’ with Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy gave a 

good insight into the world of raw material speculation. 

Times have changed. The global importance of raw materials 

steadily increased ever since the great era of 

the legendary Chicago CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange). 

Up to the end of the last millennium pork belly 

was still traded using analogue technology. By now 

‘trading’ exclusively is done electronically. The changes

in the food industry killed the pork belly. Raw material 

for the industrial production of modern goods and 

products became much more important. 

the Market deterMines the Price 

Trading in resources (that are dealt at international 

stock exchanges as their own asset category with high 

volatility) is a major part of speculations. This constitutes 

a critical factor for companies in the construction 

industry. Costs have to be calculated at a time when 

the purchase price at a delivery date can hardly be estimated. 

Large construction companies tended for quite 

a while to create and secure their own resources such as 

gravel pits. 

In 2002 Austria alone produced more than 100 million 

tons (approximation) of raw minerals such as sand, 

gravel, natural stone, lime, adobe, clay, marl, slate, 

gypsum or other industrial minerals. This equates to a 

value of about 1.1 billion Euro and in total secures about 

14,600 jobs in sectors such as construction industry, 

farming, transportation and municipalities. Without 

mineral resources such products as houses, streets, water 

channels, glasses, TVs, computers, mobile phones, 

medications or cosmetics would simply not exist. 

The need on raw construction material is 10 tons per 

year and person. In areas with a high population density 

this need is even higher. Tendency increasing. An 

20 sec. // CMe – ChiCAGo MerCAntile exChAnGe 

The once legendary pork belly trading place ‘chicago board of Trade (cbOT)’ merged in 2008 

with the world‘s second largest trading place for derivatives, ‘cMe group inc.’. The 60s saw 

the beginning of highly risky commodities futures with pork belly. Speculators from around 

the world were drawn by its incredible volatility. As the food industry started to change in 

the 90s the great pork belly era drew to a close. in 1992 the platform ‘globex’ introduced 

electronic trading at cMe. in 2006 the ‘globex’ traded papers already covered 72 % of the 

volume of all trading combined. This is equivalent to a value of 1,015 billion Dollar. 

TERMS 

Futures: A deal on the purchase/sale 

of a good at a later point in time and at 

a firmly fixed prices 

Volatility: The degree of variance in 

financial market parameters (prices of 

shares etc.) 

Asset category: Description of a 

fund‘s investment policy. 

average of 450 tons of raw mineral is needed for a family 

home with basement. A single kilometre of motorway 

even requires 160,000 tons. 

econologY vs. econoMY 

DEcological factors drastically increased the requirements 

placed on mining and processing raw materials. 

Emissions and energy consumption must be reduced 

considerably and renaturation and recultivation measures 

taken into account. Top of the list is the protection 

of habitats of endangered fauna and flora. 

The high demand on the quality of raw materials affects 

availability as well costs to control these properties. 

Mining opportunities become less and less as the population 

density and environmental awareness increase. 

This results in longer and more expensive transportation 

routes and an increasing environmental burden. 

Thus recycling wins importance. Reducing the production 

of raw minerals would reduce the national production 

by a factor of 9.34. The construction industry 

would be affected considerably. 

A shortage of raw minerals however is not likely. And 

price variations on raw material markets are manageable 

provided pork belly isn’t used for construction. // 

Ü 

www.cmEgroup.com 

45

46 // 

ENVIRONMENT 

Using 

the 

sun’s power

RENEWABLE ENERGIES Almeria has an annual sunshine of 3,000 hours 

and is the sunniest region in Europe – consequently it not only has a great 

potential for vegetable farming but also for the use of solar power. 

// PeTrA WeiSSeNbicHler 

A 

lmeriais the name of one 

of eight provinces in Andalusia 

located in the 

south of Spain. This is the name of 

the region but also of its capital. It’s 

not for nothing that it derives from 

Arabic ‘al-Mariyva’ as it is indeed 

very special: It is close to the African 

continent that strongly influences 

its climate which is extremely 

warm and very, very dry. 

seMi-desert cliMate and 

deli toMatoes 

An almost unusual semi-desert 

ecosystem exists in the inland of 

this sunniest region in Europe. 

Almond trees, olive gardens and 

vegetable plantations are typical at 

the South coast of Spain. It is also 

called ‘Europe’s vegetable garden’. 

Insiders know: “They produce the 

absolutely best tomatoes far and wide 

- very sweet, very small, very famous, 

very tasty and above all, very expensive” 

remembers Ralf Schöneberg, 

Technical MD of Project Almeria. 

“A kilogram of these tomatoes costs 

about € 16. I probably will remember 

this for a long while - but also the incredible 

taste” the friendly engineer 

comments with a smile. 

He was the overall technical manager 

for the construction of the 

largest photovoltaic park in this region 

and in all of Spain. Photovoltaic 

sounds much more complicated 

than it actually is as a solar park 

does nothing else but convert solar 

radiation into solar energy and sells 

it to the local energy provider. 

the verY Best in engineering 

The solar power plant called ‘Sol 

del Sur’ is located in the mountains 

near the villages Nijar and Lucainea 

about 40 km from the city of Almeria. 

ALPINE-ENERGIE Deutschland 

together with ARGE partners won 

the contract to construct this huge 

solar power plant. 

The average annual production of a 

solar power plants (taking all plants 

into account) is about 200 kW. But 

to get to this point requires enormous 

know-how on renewable energies 

and the very best in engineering. 

The power plant was completed 

in July 2008 after a construction 

period of only seven months and 

achieved an energy production of 

almost 14.5 MWp. A single module 

produces exactly 170 W when 

compared with the total number of 

modules installed. About 90,480 

modules have been installed for 

this project. It results in a saving of 

17,580 tons in CO2 emissions per 

year. The total energy production 

per years is 20,690,000 KWh. This 

is an enormous output considering 

the fact that about 22 million KWh 

of energy are sufficient to supply 

about 6,000 (average) homes with 

energy. 

‘Sol del Sur’ required a lot of effort, 

not only because of the difficult 

ground level. About 100 worker, 

a number of excavators, numerous 

tractors, a few bulldozer and a 

Unimog made it possible to set up 

about 85,000 mono and polycrystalline 

modules with a total surface 

area of about 300,000 m2. 

This was done for a reason: the sun 

radiates to the earth in three hours 

the same amount of energy that is 

used by the entire world population 

in one year. 

research & develoPMent 

since the 1980’s 

Solar power stations of this and 

similar kinds are not unusual in 

Andalusia. This area not only offers 

hospitality, flamenco and tropical 

fruits. North of Almeria is also 

the research area of ‘Plataforma Solar 

de Ameria’ that focussed its research 

and development on solar 

energy since the 1980’s 

The economic support of Andalusia 

is a positive side effect of the construction 

of these solar parks. They 

unburden the environment, decentralise 

the local supply of energy 

and support the region’s independence. 

// 

Ü www.alpine-energie.com 

47

48 // ENVIRONMENT 

Even the Romans 

would be amazed 

CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL CONCRETE ‘Opus Caementitium‘ also called ‘Roman 

concrete‘ has been used by the Romans already. Monumental buildings such as 

temples, thermae, tunnels, theatres and aqueducts testify still today of the durability 

and stability of this construction material. 


C 

oncrete is a much wanted 

construction material 

– then and today - as it 

is locally available and made up 

of natural components. Concrete 

cannot be done without in the 

construction industry. Particular 

properties are required from 

the construction material when it 

comes to the construction of power 

stations, cooling towers, bridges or 

foundation engineering. 

The static stress is particularly high 

in the construction of power stations. 

“The turbine‘s foundation is 2.5 

m high and must withstand a weight 

of 1,750 tons” Erik Lehner reports, 

construction site manager at the 

power plant Malzenice in Slovakia. 

“Particular attention has to be paid 

that only a low level of hydration heat 

develops with such massive construction 

elements” Lehner explains 

further. A reduced hydration heat 

should eliminate restraint stress 

that develops during the hydration 

of concrete and could cause cracks. 

The Romans too knew how to avoid 

cracks. Today there are still some 

large areas of floor screed in some 

places in North Africa built about 

200 - 300 AD. Despite the great 

differences in temperature between 

day and night there are absolutely 

no cracks in those areas. An important 

improvement was the use of 

additives. These consisted of pieces 

of brick and compensated tension 

created by changes in temperature 

and so prevented cracks. 

the ‘soft concrete’ 

develoPMent 

By now concrete has made a few 

more development steps. Further 

developments for the mixture 

of ‘soft concrete’ are intensively 

researched in the laboratories of the 

Bautechnische Prüf- und Versuchsanstalt 

GmbH (bpv) (a testing 

and development laboratory for 

structural engineering) in the city 

of Himberg. This type of concrete is 

meant in particular for foundation

engineering. The stability of fresh 

concrete and the use of additives 

in combination with long processing 

times is quite a challenge to the 

correct mixture. “The particular 

challenge is the different density of 

water and concrete - they must not 

unmix” Thomas Eisenhut explains. 

Otherwise the water raises in channels 

formed inside the concrete. 

This so-called ‘bleeding’ of the 

concrete must be prevented. 

innovation award for 

concrete Press 

A concrete filter press has been 

developed in close cooperation 

between Grund-Pfahl- und Sonderbau 

GmbH and bpv to determine 

the stability of soft concrete. The 

research team Thomas Eisenhut and 

Alexander Pekarek was awarded 

the Innovation Price 2007 ‘Premio 

Fomento de la lnnovación’ by the 

Spanish parent group FCC. 

“We repeatedly offer themes about 

concrete for degree dissertations” 

Thomas Eisenhut tells us. Mr. 

Eisenhut personally supervises 

these degree dissertations.The 

research projects are implemented 

in cooperation with students from 

the Institute for Geo-Technology at 

the University for Natural Resources 

and Applied Life Sciences and Grund-Pfahl- 

und Sonderbau GmbH. 

Soft concrete is used in foundation 

engineering for the construction 

of bore piles and treated walling. 

“Bore piles are used, among other 

things, for the foundation of bridges” 

says Markus Tandler, group leader 

at Grund-, Pfahl- und Sonderbau. 

About 600 bore piles were used for 

the Danube bridge at Traismauer. 

Of those 136 were placed in the 

Danube itself and the rest was used 

for the foreshore bridges. A bore 

pile is usually up to 40 m deep and 

usually has a diameter from 60 to 

150 cm. 

A treated walling is built for the 

construction of underground car 

parks that are completely or partially 

below ground-water level to 

reliably prevent ground water from 

entering the building. A treated 

walling is an element used up in the 

construction process (consumable) 

and is usually from 40 cm - 150 cm 

thick and up to 40 m deep. “A combination 

of treated walling and bore 

piles was used for the extension of the 

tube ‘Line 2’ at the contract section 

Fairground” Mr. Tandler explains 

further. 

All piles have been founded with 

bore piles when the tube run above 

ground. Whenever it run below 

ground treated walling elements 

have been planned for the be used 

up in the construction process as 

we were up against ground water. 

wine wants concrete egg 

The Demeter vineyard Meinklang is 

Austria’s best-known example for 

the little-known method of ageing 

wine in large concrete eggs. This 

methods is known in France for 

quite a while already. Three years 

ago Angela and Werner Michlits 

got excited about using concreteeggs 

for the ageing of wine. Since 

then they successfully promote 

this bio-dynamic wine ageing and 

storage method in Austria. Last year 

the first Austrian wine ‘hatched’ 

in concrete-eggs was bottled: the 

‘Meinklang Sankt Laurent 2006’. 

concrete has an advantage 

over wooden and stainlesssteel 

container. 

Oxygen reaches the wine in very 

small quantities via the extremely 

small air spaces that exist in concrete. 

This causes a natural microoxidation 

and allows the wine to 

breath sufficiently while ageing. 

Although wood has air spaces as 

well it also gives the wine a flavour 

of roast and tannins. Concrete, 

on the other hand, preserves the 

natural and purse taste of a specific 

variety of wine. “In the beginning 

we had to study all kinds of reactions 

wine has when in contact with 

concrete before we could develop the 

ideal type of concrete for the ageing 

of wine”, says graduate engineer 

Johann Ramsbacher and MD of 

Rauter GmbH, the Styrian manufacturer 

of wine-eggs. Wine has a 

sour ph-value. Consequently we 

had to develop a special mixture. 

Compared with the French model 

we improved the mould of the 

concrete-eggs and thereby the 

concrete’s surface characteristics. A 

concrete-egg holds 900 litres, has 

wall thickness of 12 cm and weighs 

more than 1.7 tons. It is equally 

suitable for the ageing of red and 

white wines. 

Even the Romans know about 

storing wine in concrete container. 

The Romans certainly would be 

surprised if they found out that 

wine (considered a staple of the 

people in the ‘Imperium Romanum’) 

would some day ‘hatch’ in concrete 

eggs. // 

10 sec. // ConCrete 

CONCRETE 

PROPERTIES 

HYDRATION 

Phase in which 

the concrete 

crystallises 

CREEP 

This is the term 

used for concrete 

while hydrating 

SHRINKING 

Reduction of volume/length 

because 

of hydration 

BLEEDING 

Discharging 

water at the 

surface. 

DIE OF THIRST 

The concrete 

can dry out in case 

the temperature 

is too high and 

humidity too low. 

As a result the 

concrete‘s surface 

will not achieve 

the required 

strength. 

concrete is a mixture of aggregate, water and cement 

49 

(a bonding agent). At the beginning the mixture is semi 

fluid and over time hardens more and more. in the end it 

is as hard as rock. The concrete‘s strength is derived from 

the crystallisation of the cement‘s clinker. This forms tiny 

crystal needles that interlock with one another.

50 // 

constRUctiVE 

COLUMN BY ALEx AICHNER 

Did you ever think about how many 

different professions there are? 

879? 1,367? Doesn’t matter - in 

any case an infinite number! This is 

quite remarkable considering that 

all of us originally started with the 

same profession. You may shake 

you head in disbelieve - but actually, 

it is true: You and I have the 

same ‘professional’ history. 

Despite the fact that boys usually 

dream of becoming a race car 

driver, pope, fireman or a knight. 

And despite the fact that girls usually 

dream of becoming a vet, hairdresser, 

prima ballerina, Barbiedoll 

designer or horse breeder. And 

despite the many little differences 

between the sexes: 

we all, Men and woMen 

started in the – 

construction industrY! 

Every one of us, at one time or 

another and in one location or 

another constructed with enormous 

enthusiasm. Or do you not 

remember your incredible career 

in the sandpit? The undoubtedly 

best construction sites are the coast 

lines of this world. That is where we 

have build castles, palaces, streets, 

cities, tunnels, pyramids and God 

knows what! The construction 

industry was not dominated by 

men then. Quite the contrary: Boys 

and girls were best friends when 

building sand castles. While we not 

only build on sand! Not at all. When 

we were small we were daring 

and experimented with all kinds 

of materials. Plastic and wooden 

bricks were another preferred material. 

The same applies to playing 

cards and old boxes and cardboard 

container. 

Yes, when we were kids we all 

were great builders. With a bit of 

melancholy do I remember the 

monumental sand castles - 

destroyed by waves over night. 

Or the Lego skyscrapers that did 

point the way to a daring architectonic 

vision. (I do admit that we 

have been as skilled in destroying 

as we have been in building.) In the 

course of our childhood there was 

however some unexplained and 

unfortunate incident that turned 

us away from this profession and 

we found it more desirable to become 

a pilot, film star, top model, 

secret agent or a millionaire. It 

doesn‘t matter whether our next 

professional life was a happier life. 

There is no question in my mind 

however that some of the happiest 

moments in my life were those 

when my sand castle was much 

bigger than that of my neighbour. 

Years later and an ambitious father 

of a four-year-old female construction 

engineer I am pleased to 

say that the sandcastle construction 

sector never lost its fascination. 

So much so that my daughter 

was condemned to watch while 

I was completely engrossed with 

my passion. In the end however 

she was the owner of the most 

impressive sandcastle in the entire 

Caribbean. One thing is for sure: 

The happy and cheerful sandcastlebuilding 

dads (in their private 

profession general directors and 

chairmen of boards) are proof 

beyond any shadow of a doubt that 

man was meant to build. 

Whatever: It might have been a 

social advantage that we have 

decided at one point to pursue 

other activities. At least those staying 

in the construction industry 

are happy beyond believe to not 

have all these billions of additional 

competitors. 

Even though in our hearts we all 

have remained in the construction 

industry. Honestly: Who amongst 

us does not like to now and then 

build - castles in the air? 

// IMPRINT 

PUBLISHER - ALPINE Holding GmbH 

Marketing & Corporate Communication 

Alte Bundesstraße 10 · 5071 Wals / Salzburg · Austria 

Phone +43 662 8582-0 · Fax -9900 · inside@alpine.at 

www.alpine.at 

EDITOR IN CHIEF - Andreas Eder 

EDITORIAL STAFF - Marina Pollhammer, Ines Schmiedmaier 

DESIGN / ART DIRECTION - Florian Frandl 

AUTHORS FOR THIS ISSUE - Isabella Drakulic, 

Andreas Eder, Claudia Lagler, Marina Pollhammer, 

Ines Schmiedmaier, Petra Weissen bichler 

CONCEPT & ORGANISATION - Marina Pollhammer 

CONSULTING - ikp Salzburg PR und Lobbying GmbH 

PICTURE CREDITS - Markus Berger p. 13 // Gerald Kapfer p. 

5, 10, 12, 35 (Taucher) // H.-P. Kretschmer p. 13 Mitte // Franz 

Pflügl p. 17 // Alexander Vorderleitner p. 3, 6-9 // Chris Zenz 

p. 2, 11, 12/13 oben, 20 // AlpTransit Gotthard AG p. 38/39 // 

beyer.co.at p. 22 // DIVA Consult GmbH p. 19 (DIVA-Award) // 

meinklang.at p. 49 (Betonei) // Linsinger Austria Maschinenbau 

GmbH p. 34 // Herrenknecht AG p. 29 (Transporte) // Mit 

freundlicher Empfehlung von DSC p. 26 (Stadion) // John Slater 

/ Digital Vision / Getty Images p. 24 // VisionsofAmerica/Joe 

Sohm / The Image Bank / Getty Images p. 44/45 // iStockphoto.com/LanceB 

p. 5 (Ducking the bouncer) // iStockphoto.com/ 

selensergen p. 5 (Bulgaria flag) // iStockphoto.com/shevvers 

p. 13 (Brown common toad) // iStockphoto.com/LFChavier p. 

19 (Jumping Clownfish) // iStockphoto.com/terex p. 19 (ball for 

cricket) // iStockphoto.com/AlbyDeTweede p. 19 (Container 

ship) // iStockphoto.com/matthewleesdixon p. 19 (Giant ferris 

wheel) // iStockphoto.com/derprinz p. 21 (Vienna underground/public 

transport) // iStockphoto.com/acilo p. 23 (Wind 

energy) // iStockphoto.com/ LanceB p. 25 (Last Man 40) // 

iStockphoto.com/Entienou p. 25 (Cricket Score board) // iStockphoto.com/luxxtek 

p. 25 (Detail of a cricket score board) // 

iStockphoto.com/Entienou p. 25 (Cricket Scoreboard) // iStockphoto.com/redmal 

p. 25 (cricket ball and bails) // iStockphoto. 

com/Kolbz p. 26 (Cricketer Playing a Shot) // iStockphoto.com/ 

duncan1890 p. 30 (Bulgarian flag boy) // iStockphoto.com/rosen_dukov 

p. 31 (Bulgarian coins) // iStockphoto.com/Liliboas 

p. 35 (Monarch Butterfly) // iStockphoto.com/xelf p. 35 (Ammonite 

Section) // iStockphoto.com/prill p. 35 (yellow reflective 

coat) // iStockphoto.com/Kech p. 42 (feline eye) // iStockphoto. 

com/davincidig p. 43 (passport) // iStockphoto.com/Ljupco p. 

43 (Red wine pouring down from a bottle) // iStockphoto.com/ 

Kursad p. 43 (flamenco woman) // iStockphoto.com/iwant p. 

45 (Charcoal) // iStockphoto.com/Kativ p. 46 (Solar Panels) // 

iStockphoto.com/Kativ p. 47 (Sweet Tomato) // iStockphoto. 

com/kozmoat98 p. 48 (Pouring Concrete) // iStockphoto.com/ 

tbd p. 49 (Grapes on the Vine) // iStockphoto.com/RusN p. 50 

(pebble pyramid) // Restliche Bilder: ALPINE Bildarchiv 

PRINT - agensketterl Druckerei GmbH 

PUBLICATION - biannually 

- The German version of this magazine applies in case of 

any differences. 

- Typographical & printing errors subject to change. 

- Despite very careful preparation and production of this issue 

no responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information 

and a liability by ALPINE Holding GmbH is expressly excluded.

www.alpine.at 

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Visit us at www.alpine.at. Find out about the company, read interesting stories in our online 

magazine and check out our current vacancies. Our new website tells you everything you should 

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