Access Road to the
naturenergie Campus
Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany
Smooth Turns with Doka UniKit
Thanks to Doka UniKit, the access road to the new naturenergie Campus Wyhlen takes the curve efficiently.
On behalf of naturenergie and EnBW, the historic hydroelectric power plant in Grenzach-Wyhlen (Baden-Württemberg) is being gradually transformed into a state-of-the-art naturenergie Campus — a place where electricity, heat, and green hydrogen will be produced. In the first project phase, among other things, a new access road was built on the plant grounds, running downhill and featuring a bend. For the execution of this civil engineering project, Marti AG Basel enlisted Doka’s support. With Doka’s universal engineering kit, the new access route gained the proper momentum.
Building type
Plant access road
Challenge
A combination of steep longitudinal slope and strong curvature made the geometry highly complex, with no possibility of full-area support due to ground conditions and environmental protection requirements.
Solution
Doka UniKit secondary beams, partially extended and supported by SL-1 heavy-duty struts, ensured precise alignment and safe load transfer. The flexible system allowed for variable cross-sections and heights to match the geometry perfectly.
A Path to the Future
Located in Germany’s southwest, just a few kilometres from Basel, the naturenergie Campus is a flagship project for the regional energy transition. The clients, naturenergie holding AG and EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, are developing the site into an innovation hub where hydropower, heat recovery, and green hydrogen are combined.
Before construction of the new facilities could begin, infrastructure expansion was essential. The new access road, with its striking curve and bridge-like character, was one of the first milestones — visually elegant, but technically demanding.
And quite literally, it became the road into the future.
Shored Up — Without the Groundwork
For execution, Marti AG Basel was responsible. With approximately 65 m in length, 8 m in width, and a maximum span of 13 m, the dimensions of the access road were manageable for an experienced planner. What was less routine, however, was the complex, sloping, and strongly curved geometry of the elevated structure, giving it a bridge-like character in total.
Also unusual: the requirement to design a solution without a full-area support scaffold, due to restricted ground load capacity and the need to protect sensitive flora and fauna. To meet that demand, Marti crossed the Rhine and brought in Doka’s formwork experts from Germany.
Marco Jenny | Site Manager | Marti AG Basel
„Everything just fit from start to finish: with the UniKit system we had exactly the right technical solution, and the cooperation with Doka was excellent — even across borders.“
Clever Combination
A smart combination of UniKit secondary beams and SL-1 heavy-duty struts was used to meet the project’s demanding geometry. This solution safely spanned the required distances while transferring the loads generated during concreting of the 70 cm thick carriageway slab — increasing to 86 cm at the edges.
By using suitable extensions, the beams could be provided in exactly the right lengths for each section, ensuring an optimal fit to the alignment. Where the road curved, the beam layers were fanned out to reproduce the geometry with accuracy.
In total, twelve different cross-sections with clear heights ranging from 1.9 m to 4.7 m were required. This involved extensive detailed planning — yet, the Doka UniKit system made it possible to realise the complex geometry precisely and cost-effectively.
Proven on Site
On site, the benefits of the UniKit modular design quickly became apparent. Doka provided installation support through a shoring expert from its preassembly department, who erected the first two spans together with the Marti team, offered practical tips and guided the process. After that, every move and crane operation fit perfectly, and the experienced construction teams continued working independently.
UniKit thus proved itself not only technically, but also in practice as a site-ready system that brings efficiency and productivity to construction.
After around five months of use, the formwork was stripped and the structure was completed — an important step in the further development of the naturenergie Campus Wyhlen. This was made possible not only by a powerful system — the universal engineering kit Doka UniKit — but above all by the cooperative partnership between Marti and Doka, which worked seamlessly from planning to execution, even across national borders.
Project data
Year of Completion
2025
Period of use of Doka UniKit
04/2025-09/2025
Country
Deutschland
ZIP Code
79639
Construction Company
Marti AG Basel
Client
naturenergie holding AG, EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG