The expensive conversion of Bielefeld's city center is embarrassing

Public construction projects have been a crisis topic for a long time: cost increases and delays are not the exception, but the rule.

The expensive conversion of Bielefeld's city center is embarrassing

Public construction projects have been a crisis topic for a long time: cost increases and delays are not the exception, but the rule. Just think of the Berlin breakdown airport or the Cologne Opera. Public building projects are also embarrassingly often affected by aesthetic accidents and functional defects, as an example from Bielefeld shows.

The Westphalian city has had its central Jahnplatz remodeled in two long years since the summer of 2020. On the proud website of the project, popular phrases such as "sustainable model" or "climate-friendly mobility" sound full-bodied. The square should be a space for meeting and staying, it says there.

But then it also says that it was possible to raise EU and state subsidies from the "Emission-free inner city" pot in the amount of 18 million euros. However, under the condition that it be completed by mid-2022. A “high dynamic of the construction processes” is a prerequisite for this. One could translate: Here, the hot needle was knitted, hastily planned, apparently without public participation.

Although the square is not scheduled to open until August, Bielefeld already has its summer theme, namely the general horror at the result of the 27.5 million euro renovation. Because the fact that the square is a concrete desert, the promised greenery is hidden on the roofs of the bus stops, which are too far apart, weighs more heavily than exploding costs, and that cyclists and pedestrians get in each other's way due to new lanes.

In addition, the place is already dirty. Now the FDP is calling for an external planner to remedy the defects. If that's not the beginning of further worsening.