Frankfurt Central Station should be as beautiful as it was at the beginning
More light, more air, more life: Frankfurt’s transport hubs are to become more modern and regain their historical charm.
Frankfurt – At a height of 20 meters on the scaffolding at the portal arch in the middle of the transverse platform, the restorer Leonie Saltzmann-Tyll is hardly noticed by any travelers at the main station. The statics of the 134-year-old portal arch have been examined there over the past few months, and everything is fine. Up to 450,000 people a day, some of whom are heavily packed, some of whom hurry through the main train station, don’t even notice the small hole in the main entrance, the former ticket hall. A piece of sheet metal was removed to see what it looked like underneath and to coordinate further work.
Travelers don’t notice anything
The conversion and renovation of the main station has been underway since autumn 2020 with a total volume of 375 million euros. “We do so much that the travelers don’t even see,” reports Dr. Katja Maaser, head of the mammoth project “Frankfurt Central Station Master Plan”, which summarizes all measures.
On the first 18,000 of a total of 55,000 square meters on the B level, everything behind a white protective wall has been torn out, and 35 centimeters of soil have been removed. 320 tons of asbestos material were taken out and 580 kilometers of cable – as much as from Berlin to Frankfurt. While the ICE train is moving towards Chur in the foggy Swiss canton of Graubünden on platform 6 in the station hall, a wheel loader loaded with stones rolls down through the hazy B-level construction site.
Everything is there in the shell. It will soon be gradually reinstalled there. Also the sprinkler systems and a new transformer station for the expected 34 shops in the B level – that’s ten more than before. What the flooring WILL look like has not yet been decided. At the exit to the B level, just behind the escalator, there are two test fields with different tiles. The travelers carelessly walk over it and have no idea that with every step they take, they are part of the decision: what survives the test run best is shortlisted.
B level will be rebuilt first
When the white construction walls are opened, it should be nicer, friendlier, safer and more practical. Thanks to a lighting concept, the 3.35 meter high ceiling, which previously seemed overwhelming, should appear bright and friendly, dark corners should have disappeared. The whole station should be so beautiful that people like to go there, maybe even to eat ice cream. The so-called distribution level, i.e. B level, is to be completed in 2024. The work there, the construction site on the B level, will be expanded as early as April, and then the construction site walls will advance.
“It’s interesting what happens behind these walls,” says Dr. maaser There is no peephole, apart from the virtual peepholes, the webcams, which are currently switched off. Too much construction dust. You would have to wipe the lenses over and over again to see anything on the internet. The cameras are scheduled to be turned on again in March. Currently, only the quiet whirring and knocking behind the soundproofing gives an idea of the activities. When Corona has calmed down, there should also be tours of the construction site for the public.
One of the largest structural chunks will be the construction of the multi-storey atrium in the area of the main entrance from 2026 onwards. In the future, people will be guided to the right and left of the former counter hall via a kind of gallery. It WILL be moved towards the track hall and through an opening WILL have an immediate view of shops on the B level. Where the ground WILL be broken up, a large diagram shows what it WILL look like. It hardly gets any attention. Anyone who stops and takes a look is connected. This conversion will make the station airier, and one of the measures taken is to shorten the distance between routes. The expected 30 percent more travel capacity in the future has to go somewhere. In order to absorb the excess, there will also be a track number 25 and finally – at some point, planned – after at least ten years of construction and 3.6 billion euros at a depth of 35 meters, a long-distance railway tunnel.
Workers make surprising discoveries
The trick in everything is, on the one hand, to manage everything during ongoing operations – including the upcoming renovation of the transverse platform in the mid-2030s, which is still based on the subsoil from 1888. On the other hand, innovations are implemented while preserving the old and thus identification and preserving the original beauty. During the construction work, some historical things were and WILL be unearthed, the man didn’t even know that they were still there. The construction measures are also an opportunity to bring back much of the historic charm of the magnificent building and to strengthen the recognition value of the station, “so that I know I’m in Frankfurt,” says Dr. maaser (Michelle Spillner)