No solution can be found for the completely neglected underpass at the ICC, because in the Senate one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing, says Gunnar Schupelius.
Berlin is the city that cannot keep itself clean. We know this. You’ve gotten used to a lot. I have now accidentally discovered what is probably the worst dirty corner, which we should definitely not get used to: It is the pedestrian tunnel at the ICC.
Here, under the Messedamm/Masurenallee intersection, is an underground hall with several exits. There are no traffic lights for pedestrians at the top. They should reach their destination on the other side of the street below.
As I walk down the steps, a sharp smell of urine and decay hits me. Many people are on their way to the vaccination center at the ICC. They wear FFP2 masks, not because that’s the law here, but because they couldn’t stand the stench otherwise.
I trip over junk. In the dim light of ancient fluorescent tubes I see smeared walls – as far as the eye can see. There is rotten water on the floor. Sure, we reported about this tunnel years ago. But I never thought that it would look so bad now.
On the way back from the vaccination center I have to go through again. I’ve had enough. Who is responsible for this stinking cave? It is the “Senate Department for the Environment, Mobility, Consumer and Climate Protection”.
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From there I get a detailed answer. First: “There were considerations to close the ‘Passerelle’.” (That’s the technical term for the tunnel, French: “transition”.) Second: A “feasibility study” was commissioned for this in 2018. Third, work on the study was discontinued in 2019. Why? Fourth, because the culture senator (Lederer, Linke) placed the ICC under monument protection – and with it the passerelle. Since then, fifthly, “no structural alterations or backfilling of the tunnel” has been possible.
That’s it. Everyone finally put their hands on their laps in 2019. The passerelle remained as it is, not only disgusting, but also expensive: 200,000 euros go into maintenance per year, 65,000 euros “for repairs and graffiti removal” and 118,000 “for escalators, elevators and other technical ancillary facilities”. In addition, there are the costs of cleaning, which the authorities have not given me a figure for.
The BSR allegedly arrives “daily” to clean the passerelle. When asked how the responsible senator (Jarasch, Greens) assessed the hygienic condition of the underpass, she did not want to comment. I got this information from the press office: “The high cleaning cycles often bring only short-term success.”
As is so often the case, nobody wants to solve the problem. The neglect is acknowledged with a shrug. And the millions of euros in tax money that have disappeared into the stinking passerelle over the years seem to be of no interest to anyone in the political establishment.
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