Next measure in the major project begins: civil engineering work on Burgauer Weg

Further civil engineering work has begun on Burgauer Weg in connection with the decommissioning of a steam-powered district heating sub-network in Jena-Süd. Extensive construction work will be required at various points in the city until November to connect the district heating customers there to the main network. In addition, the integration of the new network section will lead to an interruption of the district heating supply for all buildings supplied with district heating north of the Beutenberg from Sunday, May 11, 5 p.m. to Wednesday, May 14, 8 a.m.. Around 12,000 households in the city center, Jena-West and Jena-North are affected.
The connection point of the existing steam network to the main network is located at the pipe bridge in Burgauer Weg. Extensive installation work will be carried out there and on the pipe bridge itself in the coming months. Last year, Stadtwerke Jena Netze had already begun replacing the bridge, which dates back to 1968, so that it can bear the greater weight of the district heating pipes, which will in future be filled with liquid water instead of gaseous steam. To this end, fittings and pipes, pipe and bridge bearings have already been replaced in the bridge section above Kahlaische Strasse. This will now be done for the bridge section in Burgauer Weg and above the railroad tracks. For the construction work on the bridge, Stadtwerke is dependent on a track closure by Deutsche Bahn AG, which was only possible in the period from May 5 to 23.

The first preparatory civil engineering work for this most important sub-project began this week in Burgauer Weg. A construction road is currently being built in the parking lot area. Part of the parking spaces are therefore already closed. The planned construction road can be used by pedestrians and cyclists for the duration of the work. It also secures delivery traffic for the catering facilities in Paradies and serves as an emergency access road. However, it cannot be used for any other car traffic. For this reason, Burgauer Weg will be fully closed in the area of the Rohrbrücke from Tuesday, April 22, 2025. The caterers and other residents in this area as well as representatives of the UniverSaale and SteinMalEins schools have already been informed directly by the construction company. The work should be completed by mid-June.  

The Stadtwerke Energie Jena-Pößneck ask for your understanding for the restrictions.
 

An overview of all construction work carried out by Stadtwerke Jena and JenaWasser, including the respective contact persons, can be found here.

Background: The decommissioning of the district heating steam network at the Jena-Süd science and industry site is the first concrete structural measure taken by Stadtwerke Energie to ensure that Jena's district heating is climate-neutral in the future. It is also the biggest change to the district heating network since the end of the 1990s. The steam network in Jena-Süd is operated with steam at 320 degrees Celsius, while the main network operates with water at up to 130 degrees Celsius. The grid is therefore no longer future-proof for operation with renewable energies. To achieve this, the operating temperature must fall in the future, even in the main grid. As early as 2030, the municipal utilities are obliged to generate 30 percent of the heat from renewable sources. Stadtwerke currently supplies nine mostly commercial and industrial customers via the steam network. They will be connected to the main district heating network as part of the project.  

The municipal utilities have been working on the major steam network drainage project since 2019. A total of 3.2 kilometers of new hot water pipes have already been laid and two large converter stations and several smaller stations have been dismantled and replaced by hot water house connection stations. There will also be more construction work in Jena-Süd this year. At the beginning of March, construction work began at the Lichtenhainer Straäe / Moritz-von-Rohr-Straße intersection to build a district heating junction. This will continue until mid-September. The Burgauer Weg with the Rohrbrücke over the Kahlaische Straße is another focus of the work, which should be completed by mid-June. In addition, two heat transfer stations on the Schott site and the technical college will be completely rebuilt. Stadtwerke is investing a total of around 6.8 million euros in the project, including around 3.4 million euros this year alone.  

Up-to-date information on the project