Question

How did you come to look at HPA as an employer and what are your tasks?

A friend approached me in 2005 who had been planning the fairway adjustment for the HPA. The project group was looking for reinforcement, and I immediately applied. Ever since then, I have been working with many colleagues at HPA and the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV) to organise the permit process and subsequent negotiations as part of the complaint proceedings against the planning decision, during which I contributed my knowledge. This may sound a bit dry, but it was extremely exciting. The range of topics is huge, and it is about the entire tidal Elbe River – from Geesthacht to Schaarhörn. In a quieter phase, I contributed to the planning and construction of the shore power system at the cruise terminals in Altona and HafenCity. Now the fairway adjustment is being realised, and a stronger focus of mine today is taking care of public relations for the project together with the Corporate Communications team. I am also planning the dredging of some of the container ship berths, in cooperation with colleagues from the Waterside Infrastructure division. 

 
What do you particularly like about your job?

The connection to the Elbe, the broad and various palette of tasks and topics, and the many different colleagues I work with. The Elbe has fascinated me, long before my work at HPA – from a geographical viewpoint, as a nature and cultural landscape and also as a kayaking area. The fairway adjustment project is also so interesting to me because there are a lot of conflicts associated with it. It certainly must be possible to explain the benefits of such a project for everyone and, where possible, to find compromises. 
 

You have been tasked particularly with the supportive measures for the fairway adjustment. What is on your agenda for this?
 
Public relations for the fairway adjustment is currently at the top of my list. We inform the local people about the upcoming construction work, are available to journalists, inform the public on the Internet and plan informative events. The next complaint proceedings against the fairway adjustment are underway. Although the environmental associations were not able to put a halt to the work in their complaint against the third plan supplement approval, we still had to convince the Federal Administrative Court that our planning was technically solid and in line with the law. For this, we diligently support the planning authority in fighting the complaint. Part of the project’s permit management is ensuring that everything that is now happening on the construction site is in line with the regulations of the planning permission. I support my colleagues in this, who are heading the construction work. 

Could you summarise in a single sentence what the meaning of the fairway adjustment has for the port and for Hamburg?

The fairway adjustment is essential for enabling the Port of Hamburg to develop, and enabling goods to continue to be shipped with the most energy-efficient and, in many respects, most environmentally friendly means of transport – namely, mega ships. And if I may add a second sentence: with the river engineering concept as part of the fairway adjustment, we are taking an important step toward estuary management which preserves the tidal Elbe River as a transport route and valuable natural environment.   
 

What would you say is the biggest challenge of this project?

A lot of people have a clear opinion about the dredging of the Elbe, but only a few are truly familiar with the correlations. It was often difficult during the permit process to guide the discussion toward a factual and objective track. Now that the legal decision for the project has been taken, it will hopefully become easier. 

Why is the Schierlings-Wasserfenchel a species so worthy of such protection?
 
As evolution will have it, the Schierlings-Wasserfenchel is only found along the tidal Elbe. It needs a natural embankment with ebb and flow, yet it can only survive in saltwater to a limited degree. This impedes its ability to spread, even here at the Elbe, so that only a few thousand of this kind can grow every year. Now we want to preserve all the biodiversity – and in the Schierlings-Wasserfenchel, we have found a task at our own doorstep. When we now realise the extensive compensation measures for the Schierlings-Wasserfenchel within the scope of the fairway adjustment, together with Hamburg’s environmental bureau, we are not just focusing on this one species. We are not planting flower beds with the Schierlings-Wasserfenchel, but instead preparing an entire area of the riverbank to provide good conditions for this plant. In addition to the Schierlings-Wasserfenchel, we are planting wicker. Over the years, a typical Elbe alluvial forest will grow, which also serves as home to many additional protected plants, birds, bats and other animals.  

How long do you think it will take before the fairway adjustment is finished?

We are planning for the work on the fairway adjustment by HPA and WSV to be successfully completed in 2021.

Do you already know which projects will then come your way?

No, but complex planning tasks are in abundance when it comes to the port. 

When you were young, what did you want to be when you got older?   After many museum visits, I wanted to be a palaeontologist – in other words, someone who digs out dinosaur bones. More ideas came up later on; my geography studies offered me the opportunity to delve deeper into those. For an entire semester, I even had palaeontology as a minor. But during my studies, I discovered that the interesting jobs were to be found somewhere else. At one of my jobs as a student, I wrote up an expert report for the previous dredging of the Elbe, which was realised in 2000.   

And now the final question, which we always enjoy asking the most: which spot in the port fascinates you most?

The area across from the large container terminals from Waltershof and the old Captain houses from Neumühlen and Oevelgönne takes my breath away time and time again. This is where harbour history has been told for the last 200 years.