Knick-Ei - Legal Proceedings, Petitions and The Attempt To Rebuild The Dome

Legal Proceedings, Petitions and The Attempt To Rebuild The Dome

After the second collapse, the city of Halstenbek attempted to settle out of court with the companies involved in the construction of the sports hall, demanding a certain percentage of the amount needed to rebuild the dome from each company. In 2000, the company responsible for the structural design of the dome, Schlaich Bergermann & Partner from Stuttgart, refused to contribute to the funding. The company was subsequently brought to trial.

Despite the uncertainty regarding the compensation for the losses caused by the collapses and the ongoing legal proceedings, in 2001 the city council decided to rebuild the dome at an estimated cost of 2.6 million Deutschmarks. The structural design was to be revised and the works on the dome were to be conducted by companies not formerly affiliated with the construction of the sports hall. The revision of the structural design added further to the cost, as did the fact that the rooms surrounding the field had to be heated 24/7 to keep them free of mold, since rain leaking through the collapsed dome had caused mold to grow in the field's floor.

The rising cost prompted the residents of Halstenbek to protest against the council's decision. 2200 residents (17% of the population) signed a petition against the reconstruction, which was rejected by the county. The council members of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (the green party), who had voted against the reconstruction, sued against the county's decision to reject the petition. In July 2002, the administrative court of the state of Schleswig-Holstein decided that the petition had to be considered by the county steward. In September of the same year, the county conducted a binding opinion poll among the residents of Halstenbek. 5409 (50,7%) votes were cast in favor of the reconstruction, 5266 (49,3%) against it. After the city council elections held on March 2, 2003, the supporters of the reconstruction had a clear majority within the council.

The revision of the structural design was completed by November 2003 and the completion date was set so that the sports hall should have opened in the summer of 2005, at the beginning of the 2005/2006 school year. The reconstruction was halted by the city council in 2004 after the construction company submitted a cost estimate of 4.2 million Euros (8.2 million Deutschmarks). The city council issued a tender for the completion of the sports hall at a maximum cost of 2.5 million Euros. It was up to the applicants to decide whether they could retain the original dome-shaped roof at the allocated cost or not. For the first time, the council allowed alterations of the roof's design to keep the costs down. Applications were due in November 2004.

During October 2004, residents and council members opposing the reconstruction filed another petition signed by more than 2700 residents which was approved by the county's administration on November 30, 2004. The city council sued against the approval of the petition, thus preventing a second binding poll which was to be conducted on February 20, 2005, the same day on which the state parliament elections took place. The group opposing the reconstruction subsequently filed a request for an injunction against the city council to prevent them from immediately commencing the reconstruction by awarding a binding and definitive construction license to a company bidding for the tender.

After the county steward suggested an arbitration, talks between all parties involved were held between February and April 2005. As the talks did not lead to a settlement out of court, the legal proceedings continued until July 12, 2005. The administrative court's final decision was that the county steward's approval of the petition was lawful and that a lawsuit filed by the city council against the county steward was unreasoned.