On the hot summer weekends, the people of Munich lay towel after towel, not only in the outdoor pools, but also at the bathing lakes all around. The city is growing, the offer hardly, but that should change in the west. The city council decided on Thursday that the district of Freiham, which is just growing, will get a bathing lake. The neighboring Germeringer should also be happy about that, but the swimmers will have to wait about seven years for it.
Because an artificial bathing lake is not a paddling pool that you can set up in a hurry. It has to grow deep, the layer of earth has to be cleared and then the gravel underneath has to be removed. Artificial bathing lakes or quarry ponds are therefore often created in the vicinity of large construction projects where the raw material can be used without long transport times.
The bathing lake is to be built to the west of the A99.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
This will also happen in Freiham, on the 20-hectare site to the west of the A99 ring road. The bathing lake itself should have a surface area of between five and eight hectares, depending on the season and the water level. There should be sunbathing areas on all sides of the lake, the shore should slope gently and make it easier to get in. From the three variants examined in a feasibility study, the city council deliberately chose this one because it can be implemented the fastest. However, it promises the lowest profit from mining. It is currently not possible to quantify how much money the city will ultimately have to pay for the bathing lake.
The city and the Freiham association as joint owners will now commission companies to excavate the lake and process the material in a nearby concrete plant. Excavators and trucks will work in the dry for the first five meters or so, then they will encounter groundwater. Although this will make further dismantling with dredgers and pontoons more difficult, it is a prerequisite for the new bathing lake. Because the groundwater will feed it in the future and constantly supply it with new fresh water. There will be no above-ground inflow or outflow.
The groundwater near the surface will flow through the lake from southwest to northeast and should supply it with so much fresh water without artificial help such as pumps that bathing on hot summer days will actually be a pleasure. Depending on the terrain, it will probably be eight and a half to twelve meters deep. On three sides, noise protection walls or ramparts should ensure quiet despite the nearby busy streets. On the fourth side, a water guard house with a jetty will be built.
There are currently no plans for large-scale parking spaces, so people are relying on the nearby public transport system and arriving on foot or by bike from the nearby districts. So that people in the West don’t have to wait longer than six or seven years, provisional bathing operations could take place on part of the lake while dredging is still going on on the other side, which is closed off.