Actually, the opening of the newly built road section of the L2218 should have been celebrated on 9 April with a small celebration for the employees involved in the planning and the management of Gerhard Schubert, as well as all those involved in the construction and representatives of the city administration. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) does not allow this at present. Nonetheless, the Crailsheim-based company is delighted that the construction project has been completed. “With the successful and very rapid relocation of the state road, we have now created the prerequisites for our site expansion on the newly acquired areas,” says company founder Gerhard Schubert with satisfaction.
Six months ago, almost to the day, the ground-breaking ceremony for the relocation of the L2218 took place on 8 October 2019. On 860 metres, the road and the cycling path were moved about 100 metres to the north in order to free up space for the planned site expansion of the steadily growing Gerhard Schubert GmbH. As soon as the economic situation has stabilised after the corona crisis, additional assembly areas and offices for up to 300 new employees are to be built over the next few years.
With the newly acquired land, Gerhard Schubert GmbH has now created the prerequisites for the planned site expansion.
Long planning history
As short as the actual construction time was, the longer was the planning history of the road construction. Gerhard Schubert’s idea to expand the company premises to the north was already brewing around 15 years ago. In order to achieve this, however, the state road had to be relocated. Since 2014, the measure has been intensively discussed with the city of Crailsheim and various interest groups of citizens, landowners, residents and environmental associations as well as the regional council in Stuttgart. Finally, the city of Crailsheim gave the green light for the planning and implementation of the plant expansion. The planning was completed in the summer of 2019 and the construction site started in the autumn of the same year.
“For Gerhard Schubert GmbH, the plant expansion reflects a clear commitment to the Crailsheim location. We intend to invest some 30 million euros over the next few years and create many new jobs. With the successful relocation of Dr.-Bareilles-Strasse, further construction work can now begin on our site,” explains Ralf Schubert.
