The Old Weaving Mill in Tübingen: Keeping It Colourful on Site

Known for cotton terry since the golden 1920s, the Egeria weaving mill was one of the largest in­dus­trial em­ploy­ers in the German city of Tübingen for years. In 1990, Egeria was closed down and the site was left derelict. It was only in 2009 that the Tübingen city council decided to re­de­velop the area into an at­trac­tive living and working en­vi­ron­ment for future res­i­dents in a project valued at €20 million.

CDM Smith was com­mis­sioned with assessing the site and build­ings for con­t­a­m­i­na­tion as early as during Egeria’s in­sol­vency pro­ceed­ings. Brown­field re­de­vel­op­ment planning began once the city council had pur­chased the site, but the disused in­dus­trial plant and build­ings were in ex­tremely poor con­di­tion and required complete de­mo­li­tion. The former Neckar riverbed carried old deposits, and the site’s subsoil was con­t­a­m­i­nated from the site’s previous in­dus­trial use. Apart from securing the site grounds, the con­struc­tion project required 75,000 m³ of soil to be re­me­di­ated by ex­ca­va­tion while pro­tect­ing the ground­wa­ter from long-term con­t­a­m­i­na­tion. Again, CDM Smith was com­mis­sioned for con­sul­ta­tion and planning.

The city council organised an urban de­vel­op­ment com­pe­ti­tion. CDM Smith was chosen for the site investigation and the site de­vel­op­ment. Our main tasks included planning, ten­der­ing and su­per­vi­sion of the entire de­mo­li­tion and soil re­me­di­a­tion phases, in­clud­ing soil man­age­ment. We also created a ge­o­in­for­ma­tion system for the project area for con­struc­tion planning and provided complete ge­ot­ech­ni­cal con­sult­ing services for sub­se­quent builders. The prop­er­ties were returned to the in­di­vid­ual building as­so­ci­a­tions after we had com­pleted our ac­tiv­i­ties in 2014.

The "Alte Weberei" or “old weaving mill” as it is known today has now become an attractive living and working environment for around 800 people after rede­vel­op­ment, leaving hardly a trace of its previous industrial use. An old building marking the centre of the large Egeriaplatz square and the striking Egeria tower are all that remain as cultural monuments.