"I wanted to go to the mountains"

Civil engineer Julia Geist started working for Implenia in Düsseldorf while she was still studying in Germany. After graduating, she applied for a job in the high mountains of Switzerland and is now responsible for materials management on the new Spitallamm replacement project. Why the large construction site at 1,900 m above sea level is a dream job for the flatlander.

For Julia Geist, summer is no time for sweet idleness: the construction site on the Grimsel is only snow-free for six months of the year, during which time around 100 people work in several shifts to build the new, double-curved arch dam block by block until 2025.

No fear of responsibility

As site foreman, Julia is responsible for materials management - a challenging task on this construction site. It is a special concrete with very high requirements. It contains aggregates of up to 125 mm in diameter and is produced in the site's own concrete plant directly on the installation site at the foot of the wall. It is tested several times a day in the construction site laboratory, which is installed in one of the wall's tunnels.

The concrete plant produces the special concrete for wall construction directly on the construction site - around 500 m³ are currently used per day

LET OUR TEAM SHOW YOU AROUND THE CONSTRUCTION SITE!

TO THE TIKTOK SERIES

Strictly tested quality: the concrete for the wall is constantly checked in the construction site laboratory.

The material for the concrete production comes from the local area, as Julia emphasizes: "We extract the rock ourselves. At first, we recycled the rock excavated for the dam wall. We now use the material from an old legal landfill site from the last century, which was used for tunnel excavations and power station construction throughout the Grimsel system."

Before the rock can be used for concrete production, several work steps are necessary, which must be coordinated in terms of quality and timing, as Julia emphasizes: "Over the years, all kinds of waste has accumulated in the landfill. We not only remove plastic and wood, we also sometimes find old vehicles. In the search for material for the dam wall, we really clean up here to be able to guarantee a high-quality rock in the end."

The rock used to make the concrete comes from an old landfill site. Before it is delivered to the gravel works next door, the raw material is pre-crushed.

The pre-crushed raw material arrives at the gravel plant, where it is further crushed, washed and screened to prepare it for the various aggregate components for the concrete. "We then drive it around 3 km with several trucks in different rotations up to the concrete plant and fill it into the appropriate silos and storage areas," says Julia. "Cement, fly ash and the concrete chemicals are the only things we have to bring up from the valley to make the concrete."

As site manager, Julia is also responsible for the entire gravel production at the plant at 1,650 m above sea level and transportation to the concrete plant

A great deal of coordination is required to ensure that the 500 m³ of dam wall concrete needed each day is available for concreting on time and in the right quality. Julia enjoys the work: "When I started here as a young foreman, I had to prove myself, but the initial skepticism of some people soon subsided. We all know that: We can only manage this challenging task with so many interfaces, which all have to be coordinated in terms of quality and timing, as a team - if we work well together, everyone benefits."

As a flatlander - she comes from North Rhine-Westphalia - how is she coping in the rugged Swiss mountains? "Excellent," she laughs, "I really wanted to come here! During my studies, I worked on the U81 project in Düsseldorf. When I had my degree in the bag, I was looking for a great challenge in a beautiful place. Implenia was able to offer me a very good opportunity."

The U81 project, Düsseldorf

Julia loves the mountains and enjoys her new home, around 60 minutes from the construction site down in the valley. "My partner found a job in the area at the same time. Now we enjoy the mountains, especially in the winter months on skis. Then there's less to do on the construction site and we have a bit more time for activities in the mountains."

In addition to the quality of life in the vacation paradise, Julia also appreciates the fact that she has been given this responsible task so early in her career. "I see every day what I can achieve here with my team, and that makes me proud. Now I just have one more challenge to overcome: Learning to understand the different varieties of Swiss German perfectly. The team here is really diverse and, as a German, I sometimes reach my linguistic limits, but it's incredibly fun to get to know Swiss culture in this way."

One challenge remains: learning to understand Swiss German in all its facets - here with construction foreman Daniel Seliner, who generally only speaks Glarner German with his colleague

Construction of the Spitallamm replacement dam

Kraftwerke Oberhasli AG is replacing the existing dam wall with a new one between 2019 and 2025. The old wall is in need of renovation, but will be retained and flooded at a later date. By replacing the Spitallamm dam, KWO is ensuring that the water from Lake Grimsel can be used for electricity production without restriction in the long term.

MORE