An old, rather dilapidated district heating pipe at the Schongau vocational school is now being examined more closely.
It could be a bigger construction site, the first preparations are already underway.
The smoke from the manhole covers has even called the fire brigade twice.
Schongau
- smoke or smoke from shafts at the Schongau vocational school - the Schongau fire brigade recently had to move out again.
Somebody had informed the control center about it that evening, "and of course we have to investigate", said fire brigade commander Werner Berchtold.
After the second alert, however, the public utilities were contacted.
A sign is now warning walkers and residents that there is a leak in the district heating pipe, according to Johannes Kuhl, deputy technical director at Schongauer Stadtwerke.
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There is smoke and steam from the shafts at the vocational school.
This is not a case for the fire brigade, but major construction work on the district heating pipeline.
© Hans-Helmut Herold
Sometimes there is quite a lot of steam coming out of the gullies
The fact that there is sometimes quite a lot of steam from the gullies at this point is due to the cavity in the ailing hood channel, creating a kind of chimney effect.
One had wanted to wait for the end of the heating season, now the preparatory work for the investigation of the more than 50 year old sewer between the school center and the hospital is under way.
The first search slots have recently been made.
"It has not been confirmed that it is due to the house connection," says Kuhl.
There should be a good solution for the residents
But this also means that it is not enough to just open the floor in the parking area of the vocational school or the adult education center, the traffic area is also likely to be more affected.
A traffic law order is needed, said Kuhl.
There must be a good solution for the residents: “We have to get in touch with them and see where their wishes and needs are.” And the delivery traffic and the journey for teachers and students to the vocational school must also be regulated.
"We have to coordinate that first."
How far-reaching the measures will be and when exactly it can start, but above all how long a rehabilitation or repair of the line could take at this point, it is not yet possible to make a reliable statement about this, says Kuhl.
There are simply too many imponderables.
"The problem is that you can acoustically localize damage to water pipes, but that is not possible with district heating pipes," explains Kuhl.
The hood channel is a hollow body, so the leak can only be roughly narrowed down, there is nothing left but to open it and look for it.
The construction board is already in place, we can start
The construction board is already there, after an urgent construction site in the Lechvorstadt, things should start.
Kuhl hopes that the construction site will not drag on as long as last year on Marktoberdorfer Strasse near the school center (we reported).
"There were major complications there," says Kuhl.
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The first search slots in the street have already been opened.
© Elke Robert
But even at the vocational school it can be about old pipe dimensions that have to be specially made. Unfortunately, building materials are not only in short supply in the wood sector, but also in metals and plastics. "We also suffer from the fact that plastic pipes are almost impossible to get for the sewer house connections." The market has been swept empty. A supplier had been announced that there would be no more deliveries until September. "We do not hope for something like that, but it is currently not calculable," said Kuhl.
As soon as the leak search can actually start at the vocational school, detailed information about possible traffic obstructions should be provided.
So far, the municipal utilities do not assume that the entire old section of the canal, which leads from Marktoberdorfer Strasse via Wilhelm-Köhler-Strasse to the vocational school and from there to the hospital, will have to be replaced.
There are several options for renovation, according to Florian Hiemer, Technical Director of Schongauer Stadtwerke, at the beginning of this year.
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