The city councilors seemed to be unable to believe it themselves: they spent an hour discussing and raising their hands a few times, and in the end the swiftly passed resolutions saved the city a high six-figure sum. And according to the prevailing opinion, even without any disadvantage arising from it. Martin Reichart (Freie Bürgerschaft) expressly rejected the fears expressed by Tino Schlagintweit (Greens) and Thomas Breitenstein (SPD) that the savings would mean lowering the quality of the new Michael-Ende elementary school. Instead of a necessary compromise, Reichart, who is an architect himself, even spoke of an “optimization” and said: “We haven’t trimmed anything down, nothing at all.”
What did the councilors decide? Once again, it was a matter of somehow putting a lid on what was by far the most expensive building project in the city in the next few years, so that the expenses didn’t get out of hand. The city has cut costs a number of times in the construction of the school, which is also to become the home of the music school. The sports hall will no longer be sunk into the ground as originally planned, but will be built at ground level.
The building committee was now dealing with further details that were to be left out or solved differently. And they brought in some really big savings. “Why don’t you do it that way when it’s so much cheaper?” asked Jürgen Radtke (Greens). He asked the question several times and Mayor Christoph Böck (SPD) also shook his head in between. “Why is that in there at all?” he asked at a post. The school with a risk buffer should still cost 73 million euros even with savings.
Also deleted: the security service in the evenings on the construction site
Now cheaper spruce is used in the wood-aluminium windows instead of silver fir. Saving: 82,000 euros. According to Reichart, one type of wood can be used as well as the other. The external blinds are left out on the north side of the school and on the sports hall, where there is no glare from the sun anyway. Saving: 144,000 euros. Instead of the parquet and the polished screed, linoleum is laid throughout the school. Saving: 272,000 euros. According to Reichart and other city councillors, this is a smooth improvement because the floor will even be easier to maintain. Annegret Harms (SPD) warned of screed that would eventually show signs of wear. Like Schlagintweit, she promoted a great color concept with linoleum. Reichart praised linoleum as a natural product and said that the questions about the point of the expensive plans were “very justified”.
Despite the already high construction costs, the city does not want to leave out everything that would also be possible from the point of view of the planners who worked out the savings ideas. There should continue to be a school pond and for pedagogical reasons the intended viewing windows between classrooms and multi-purpose rooms should continue to be implemented. An induction loop is also being used in the auditorium so that people with hearing impairments can better follow events.
However, a shoring in the basement area of the building facing the Munich Ring was rejected as completely dispensable. Savings here: 106,000 euros. In view of the size of the project, they also want to slim down in part for the position for construction site logistics. 590,000 euros are earmarked for this, and the part for civil engineering and shell construction, which only one company will take on anyway, is dispensable. That makes 122,000 euros. And you save 60,000 euros on the security guards who watch the construction site at times when nobody else is there. It was said that no one was going to carry away bags of cement. That was met with opposition from some. The security service is saved anyway.