When the flood came: Rheinbach campus

A view of the Rheinbach campus and lecture hall 1: The flooding rendered many seminar rooms, laboratories and lecture halls unusable.

When the flood came

Reconstruction is underway at the Rheinbach campus after the flooding in the summer of 2021

From flooded basements to power cuts and damaged technical infrastructure, the flooding disaster on 14th July 2021 really left its mark on the Rheinbach campus. “The extent of the destruction was unimaginable. In the basement, the water was up to two metres deep, and pumping it out took several weeks,” reports Thomas Hümmerich from university’s department for Facilities Management, Building and Safety. He is in charge of the ongoing clean-up operation and renovations. Despite the damage to buildings, the university was extremely fortunate that no one was injured.

Crisis management with combined forces

Every single university building on the Rheinbach campus was affected by the flood. The seminar rooms and lecture halls for the Management Sciences and Natural Sciences departments could no longer be used. Miraculously though, chemicals from the Department of Natural Sciences that were stored in the basement remained tightly closed, as shown by water analyses. H-BRS was able to use its expertise in this area. It helped the certified analysis lab to take samples and coordinated the scope of analyses in various external measuring laboratories. The result was negative, so water from the basements could be pumped out into the sewage system. “We’re very pleased to have experts in water analysis at the university as it meant we could act quickly on the matter,” says Ute Schmitz, Head of Facilities Management, Building and Safety. H-BRS also has another major advantage. It is one of the few institutes of higher education in NRW that, according to the Higher Education Act, is in charge of all its own buildings. Unlike most universities in the state, the Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb NRW (“Building and Infrastructure Service NRW”) does not own the buildings. By acting as contractor, H-BRS has complete responsibility and can independently prioritise where to renovate first. “Thanks to this legal regulation, we don’t have another authority standing between us and the planners and companies carrying out the work. This significantly speeds up the process,” explains Ute Schmitz. The Rheinbach campus crisis team, which was set up after the flood, regularly advises on the prioritisation of the reconstruction and possible hurdles for teaching and research. For example, since reorganising the biology research area is more difficult than other research areas due to certain legal regulations, the crisis team has prioritised the repair of the corresponding building complex.

A wave of solidarity from the region

The fact that teaching and research could be maintained is due to the great support provided by the region. From the University of Bonn and the Science Center Bonn to the local authorities, many institutions showed their solidarity with H-BRS and provided rooms for teaching, though it is not at all easy to find seminar rooms and laboratories. Dean Peter Muck, Department of Management Sciences, and Dean Michaela Wirtz, Department of Natural Sciences, know the needs of their departments

and students very well. Together with members of their departments, they worked hard to find suitable facilities.

Along with many other helping hands, it is thanks to their efforts that suitable temporary premises were organised and moved into quickly. The best example of this is the Heisenbergstraße site. “The building stood empty and was previously home to a chemical manufacturing company,” says building expert Thomas Hümmerich, explaining the suitability of the site. As such, implementing a laboratory concept was very feasible in the Heisenbergstraße building. “Christopher Becher, an employee in the department remembered the building when he was clearing out the basement”, adds Dean Michaela Wirtz, “and with that the first cornerstone was laid”.

She also thanks the city of Rheinbach. “Thanks to the support of the city in our search for potential teaching space in Rheinbach and, above all, in the process of transforming the use of Heisenbergstraße, we were quickly able to resume teaching and research.” H-BRS is now well positioned until the Rheinbach campus has been completely rebuilt. The funding for this mammoth project is being provided by the state of NRW. Support from the region pays off: Students from the Department of Natural Sciences use pipettes in the temporary labs at the Heisenbergstraße building