Brandenburger quality impresses the Budapest sewer company

Successful partnership with Alterra in Hungary

With consistent high quality, a flexible construction site procedure and a quick execution, the Hungarian company Alterra Budapest subsidiary together with Brandenburger impressed the Budapest sewer company. Four sewer rehabilitation projects were successfully completed in cooperation in the Hungarian capital in 2007.

Brandenburger has been active for Alterra in Hungary since 2006. Back then, about 1300 metres of oval profile DN 300/450 were renovated during the cooperation of both companies in Budapest. The way this first common project came about is described by Atilla Pappert from the Budapest Alterra subsidiary: “Originally we had a contract with the Budapest sewer company for a rehabilitation in open cut. But then we had the case that street over the damaged sewers had been re-asphalted in the meantime. To avoid damaged we had to think of something new. We were able to change the contract and were able, for the first time, to carry out a trenchless rehabilitation with light-curing GFRP pipe liners.” Parallel to this construction site, the Brandenburger specialists additionally supported the sewer company to renovate an inaccessible groundwater sewer DN 200 beneath stairs in the Burg district. The sewer company was quite pleased as clients by the successful completion using the Brandenburger pipe lining technology. Result: In the course of 2006, the general certification for the Brandenburger method was given without a problem. “During our last visit to Budapest, we were able to speak directly with the management of the Budapest sewer company about our procedure”, reported Stefan Jensen from Brandenburger. “Those responsible there have certified a high quality for us and confirmed that this is what it took to create sufficient trust by the engineers of the sewer company for the cured-in-place procedure.” An important hurdle for further projects was thereby taken, because similar to the Hamburg water works, sewer rehabilitation procedures may not be applied in Budapest until a prequalification procedure has been successfully passed.

Four further projects in 2007 – Perfect cooperation with Alterra

Since those first projects, the cooperation between Brandenburger and Alterra has been expanded further. In a total of four orders, sewers with an overall length of about 2 kilometres were successfully rehabilitated in 2007. The construction time was about three weeks each. Jensen explained that the practical cooperation between Brandenburger and the Hungarian partner company functioned perfectly during the preparations for the rehabilitation as well as during the execution on the construction site. “The pipe liner is saturated in the Landau factory and shipped to Budapest. There it is installed onsite by a Brandenburger team. The onsite supervision was managed by Alterra.” The Hungarians were also responsible for all the preparatory work. Attila Pappert and Stefan Jensen remained in close contact. It has proved worthwhile during the previously executed projects that the Brandenburger employees were onsite with a robot vehicle two weeks each time before the beginning of construction to prepare the construction sites together with the Alterra company and to guarantee the successful completion of the rehabilitation measure.

Reliability of the Brandenburger method convinced Alterra

Alterra, an established civil engineering company operating throughout Hungary with focus on major Hungarian cities, has chosen the Brandenburger method and a cooperation after extensive market research. “We were looking for a partner such as Brandenburger, because we wanted to expand in the area of sewer rehabilitation into the direction of pipe lining,” says Pappert. “It was important for us to establish a long-term partnership.” After various systems had been examined carefully, the company decided for a cooperation with Brandenburger after Pappert had visited the Brandenburger factory in Landau and construction sites in Germany during 2005. “What was crucial for me was that the Brandenburger system was very reliable,” according to Pappert. “Furthermore, Brandenburger has the same philosophy as we do: The professional execution stands at the centre and you always want to be a bit better than what is required.” Pappert is impressed by the pipe lining method after the first projects together: “On the one hand, the cooperation with Brandenburger is very good and professional. Moreover, since the liners are delivered ready-for-installation, the construction sites are always shipshape clean. What I like best of all is the curing by UV light. That saves a lot of time. After a couple of days, everything is completed already.” On of the next objectives for the company is to also invest in pipe lining technology and to purchase a complete system from Brandenburger to work with it themselves.

But first, there are other common projects to be tackled. At the moment, they are competing for further, internationally tendered rehabilitation projects from the Budapest sewer company, which are planned for May 2008.

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