Starting Point
The US company Biogen is one of the world`s leading biotechnology companies. The headquarters of Biogen International and the head office of the Swiss branch are located in Zug.
The company Biogen plans to realise a state-of-the-art, biopharmaceutical production facility for medicinal active ingredients on the «Attisholz Süd» site in Luterbach. The project is segmented into three phases, only the first phase is a currently visible and specific construction project. The construction has begun in the winter of 2015. The commissioning of the plant has been scheduled for late 2018.
Along the commissioning of the plant, 400 jobs will be created. All in all, the project is of outstanding economic importance for the canton of Solothurn as a landowner and promoter.
Tasks of WAM
In order to obtain a building permit, it was necessary to adapt the pre-existing and partly approved partial zone plan «Attisholz Süd» and to tailor it into the project. In addition to that, the project is subject to compulsory environmental impact assessment (EIA) for various reasons, which is why it was necessary to draw up a design plan.
WAM planners and engineers took care of the elaboration and revision of the necessary usage plans. Further, WAM ensured the cooperation between the local community Luterbach and the canton of Solothurn and accompanied the procedure, in particular the participation of the municipality.
The challenges in this planning process were in the short time horizon for the preparation of the permission dossiers as well as in the necessary, formal correct execution of the procedure. The planning started in May 2015 and was completed in October 2015 with the approval of the government council.
Work Done Previously
The fact that the planning process could be successfully completed in such a short time was due to the detailed work done before.
In a first step, a test planning was carried out and the potential of the area was examined under the co-management of the Canton of Solothurn and the company Borregaard (today Attisholz Infra AG). The recommendations were documented in the final report of December 2011.
Based on this, further planning steps were initiated and a masterplan for the development of the area Attisholz Süd was elaborated. The head of project management was the office for spatial planning of Canton Solothurn. It was supported in the processing of Metron AG, Brugg. The Masterplan was available at the beginning of 2013.
As a basis for the subsequent usage planning procedure on the «Attisholz Süd» site, a spatial (partial) mission had to be developed based on the cantonal planning and building law. The considerable spatial extent and the strategic importance of the area as a superordinate work area required this. Since the overall revision of the area planning in Luterbach is still pending, the «working» part of the new spatial model has been prioritised. WAM planners and engineers were entrusted with planning the partial spatial mission «work» as a spatial planners of the community of Luterbach.
Follow-up Planning
Linked to the Biogen settlement there is various follow-up planning in which WAM planners and engineers are taking on tasks:
In the purchase agreement between Biogen and the Canton of Solothurn, the planning and realisation of public parking facilities along the River Aare was agreed on. For this purpose, the canton conducted a study assignment with five qualified planning offices in autumn / winter 2015. The project by mavo, Zurich, was recommended for further processing and mavo was commissioned to draw up a design plan. WAM planners and engineers accompanied mavo in the development of the usage plan dossiers on technical terms.
The purchase contract also regulated the planning and realisation of a pressure pipeline for the process wastewater of the production plant. The pipeline should connect the production plant on the Attisholz site to a specially developed pre-treatment facility on the site of the ZASE at Emmenspitz Zuchwil. WAM planners and engineers created the development plan, which forms the legal basis for the construction and ensures the direction for the management of the ground owning duties, as well as the project execution.
WAM planners and engineers, together with Wanner AG and Terre AG, are also responsible for the environmental construction management (Umweltbaubegleitung - UBB) of the Biogen construction site in Attisholz Süd. UBB over looks and supervises environmental issues during construction and assists the client with the realisation of the construction project in accordance with the law. It also ensures compliance with the environmental laws, regulations, directives and guidelines and ensures the implementation of the environmental requirements and conditions resulting from the approval procedure.
