STEAG continues expansion of district heating infrastructure in Essen

Essen. Together with the municipal utility Stadtwerke Essen, district heating company STEAG Fernwärme Essen GmbH is continuing to expand resource-conserving and climate-friendly heat supply in Essen. Nine districts of Essen were connected to the district heating supply during the past two years in the Eastern Line project. Now, in the upcoming summer vacation period, the A52 highway is to be crossed by the heating line, creating the prospect of adding the south-eastern urban districts to the district heating network. There will in consequence be a brief closure of the highway at the end of July for the pipelines to be laid.

“In order for us to pass our pipelines under the highway, the A52 will be closed in both directions between the Essen-Süd junction and the Essen-Ost junction from 10 p.m. on Friday, July 23, to 5 a.m. on Monday, July 26,” explains Georg Röttgers, who planned the construction work at STEAG Fernwärme GmbH. To avoid traffic obstructions, wide-ranging detours will be signposted in good time in advance. From Monday, July 26 onwards, the highway will be open again in both directions.

The construction work is being carried out in close coordination with the government-owned company Autobahn GmbH and is dovetailed into the work currently being carried out to renew the road surface and noise protection on the A52 between Essen-Kettwig and the Essen-Ost interchange.

“In order to keep the disruption to road users to a minimum, we deliberately chose a weekend during the summer vacations,” says Mario Korte, head of the Essen branch of Autobahn GmbH Rheinland. “However, vacationers traveling to Düsseldorf Airport should make allowances for the closure,” Mario Korte adds.

Wide-ranging detour
The pipeline which will be laid under the A52 in the Werrastrasse area at the end of July is 32 meters long in total. “That pipework enables us to cover the entire width of the roadway except for a few meters on the left and right,” says Georg Röttgers. The meters of pipeline missing on either side of the highway will then be laid at a later date, when the connection to the district heating network or its further extension and the connection of new customers who already have contracts takes place. No further road closures will be required for this remaining work.

With this construction work, STEAG Fernwärme Essen GmbH is continuing the expansion of climate-friendly district heating supplies in Essen. “The crossing of the A52 is an important step towards being able to connect further parts of the city to the district heating network,” says Dr. Peter Schäfer, Chairman of the Board of Stadtwerke Essen AG. As joint shareholders of STEAG Fernwärme Essen, Stadtwerke Essen and STEAG are therefore making an important contribution to the sustainable reduction of CO₂ emissions in Essen and thus to achieving the local climate targets.

“In this respect, the expansion of the low-emission district heating supply is an important contribution to the success of the local energy transition,” adds Michael Straus, Managing Director of STEAG Fernwärme GmbH.

Good cooperation
On the part of the planners and project managers, Georg Röttgers expresses his appreciation of the good and unbureaucratic cooperation with the federal government’s Autobahn GmbH: “The communication and coordination with colleagues has been and continues to be excellent. In this way, we have managed to harmonize the district heating construction work and the work on the road renewal in the best possible way in terms of timing and planning, and to keep the impact on traffic within acceptable limits.”