Since the beginning of the year, as one of the project supervision tasks for Stadtentwässerungsbetriebe Köln (StEb), IWR GmbH has been supervising the execution of the construction of a pneumatic sewer system at Hafenstraße in Cologne-Mülheim. Due to the close proximity to the Rhine, high requirements are put on the future sewer system with regard to flood control.

In order to fulfill the requirement of a perfectly tight technical system, flood-proof collection chambers and a monitoring system that allows their selective deactivation were chosen. Furthermore, in the course of updating the execution drawings, several detailed special solutions were developed. Among these is a collection chamber (shown above), consisting of a vacuum sewer system shaft (by Roediger) which – with the aid of an appropriate sealing system – was inserted into a base of waterproof concrete and is accessible via a dome made of precast concrete elements.