VACATION DELUXE - The Construction Of A Holiday Park | Full Documentary

in the heart of germany's alboy region at the foot of the alps a gigantic holiday park is being constructed on 184 hectares around 5 000 people will be able to spend their vacation here in 1 000 holiday homes but there's still a lot of work to do before it opens this is outstanding when you put it up you never know where the forces are going to act that's the dangerous thing it's a construction site full of superlatives around 1 100 men are working non-stop to make sure everything's finished in time for the parks opening just before the opening date the roof section of a giant slide still has to be fitted it's got to go on no matter how and germany's technical standards authority tuff is checking all the park's attractions thoroughly this is of course a major safety defect will this mega vacation park be ready before the first guests are due to arrive in germany's algo region this site is the size of 258 football fields and around a million vacationers per year will soon be expected here it's only six months until the giant holiday park's planned opening today the main building is getting its very special roof made of air cushions first of all a structure of arches is being erected to carry the roof each weighing several tons they're made of specially prepared solid timbers this is they've been given a special paint coating which is suitable for the swimming pool and so have the steel trusses so the whole thing the entire structure makes a bright transparent impression if it's a dark color the visual appearance makes the whole structure look much lower above the roof at a height of 10 meters the men now have to install the cross beams between the timber arches to do so they need an aerial platform but it's still on the ground first the heavy machine has to be hoisted onto the roof by crane but that doesn't go as planned a staircase has been built in the very place they wanted to put the machine and from this position the boom arm can't reach the place they need to work on the roof i've just tried and it can't get us to where we need to go so we'll have to change position and put it somewhere else a floor higher with the tower crane so we can get to work so with the help of the crane the platform is simply lifted up to a higher position now the men can finally reach their workplace but the next problem is already waiting nothing high now it won't fit in rusty no it doesn't fit the steel beam up there has to fit to the millimeter and to do that we've got some room for maneuver to position it we have to press the trusses apart again we do it with this frame jack works just like a car jack and you can press three tons apart with this the wooden arches haven't yet been casting concrete that's why they can still be pressed apart so the steel truss can now fit in the construction worker now mounts the truss onto the timber arch by hammering thick steel bolts through the pre-drilled holes the men complete the entire roof substructure [Music] and now specially trained industrial climbers attach the foil for the air cushions there will be a total of eight air cushion roofs on the main building which is why the overall area is a gigantic eight thousand square meters the foil consists of a four-layer special membrane and has the advantage of not only being transparent and translucent but also less expensive and quicker to fit than a glass roof each of these foil sections is connected by a hose to a generator and this generator permanently fills the four layers with air this gives them a certain thermal insulating quality and load bearing capacity if you look at them now when they're not inflated they can't carry any weight if half a meter of snow fell today they'd all be broken by now only six months before the opening the entire roof construction should have already been finished but there's a problem is a foreign the work with the foil can't be done when it's colder than zero to five degrees there's nothing you can do about it it's put us way behind schedule so we've just got to do our best now to try and catch up the industrial climbers attach the foils to the frame profile the gray spots on the foil serve to reflect the sun's rays and so make sure that the foil doesn't heat up later this mega vacation park is expecting to get over a million visitors a year after it opens and that's supposed to happen in five months time by then one thousand holiday homes have to be finished and fully inhabitable to manage this workload the workmen have to build five houses every day a monumental challenge even if they are prefabricated houses a mobile crane lifts the prefab house elements each weighing several tons into their designated positions they were produced by a manufacturer in belgium [Music] the wall exterior is thermally treated spruce then comes the substructure which is for the rear ventilation so that the air can pass through and won't accumulate behind here it's just for fresh air because when we get 60 to 80 degrees celsius behind here in summer this lets the warm air out on the outside there's a wood fiber board like this here that's on there as well then there's the wooden support this is insulated with glass wool and then inside there's another osb panel to seal it up the fitters pull the pre-fabricated elements together with a beam tightener [Music] each element has its own individual number code written on it to ensure it's installed in the right place in addition the components are already fitted with dowels so that they can be connected and screwed together more quickly on this house we have about eight to ten different screws lengths and thicknesses starting from six to one forty one highlight of these holiday homes are the bathrooms they're delivered as prefabricated bathroom pods and installed in one piece underneath them the men lay out polystyrene sheets we've leveled it out here now so that the floor height is in line with the bottom of the cabin we've laid it in water and the polystyrene sheets are there to provide the thermal insulation the vermi demo to give it the first prefabricated and completely furnished bathroom pod is now lowered in by crane this pod technology is normally used for building passenger ships the elements are designed as lightweight metal structures and can be transported very easily at around 700 euros apiece these pod bathrooms are more expensive than conventional variants but the time saved on assembly and installation is enormous all the water connections are already in place and they can be installed in all weather conditions [Music] there are five different house types in the holiday park ranging from basic to deluxe from 56 to 200 square meters in size in the meantime the men on the prefab site are busy sealing the house for this they're using so-called company bands they expand to more than five times their original size the tape is for wind proofing it expands to 14 millimeters in 10 minutes quarter of an hour although in these temperatures when it's colder it can sometimes take a day until it's finished but it expands by itself the form work for the roof comes on here and presses down on it like this and that seals it the roof elements are made of thermally treated spruce wood they were also manufactured in belgium and are already completely insulated there's a reason why all the houses here have a gable roof the holiday park is in the heart of the algoy region where a lot of snow falls in winter on a flat roof it wouldn't slide off and in the worst case the roof could collapse under the weight after just 10 hours the house is finished only the roof tiles are missing these houses are ready for the interior fixtures and fittings but first they'll be checked carefully for any construction faults by architects burkhad hegna and alexander nyayat the beam up there needs to be sanded it's still dirty there's something in the white wall too right kitchen's fully installed apart from the handles these holiday homes are being checked very carefully so that construction faults won't be repeated in the other houses well we definitely know where to look because these faults occur again and again for instance when i see this here the corners split off that's just so typical the slat's been taken off several times the shutters had to be adjusted and here the plinth base as well and so the corner up there was split off so we'll have to put a new slat on here modern computer technology means all those responsible are informed immediately about the faults that have been discovered the damage is recorded and then marked on the floor every company involved has online access to this program and can see right away this is the fault that concerns me i have to deal with it and once it's been dealt with they report in this program again that the relevant fault has been remedied besides the 750 standard holiday homes 250 so-called exclusive houses are also being built in the park using the wood from the trees that were felt to make way for the park's construction each of these luxury houses will later even have their own private sauna only three months until the holiday park opens the 20 000 square meter main building the so-called market dome still resembles a giant building site it's hard to imagine that there will soon be visitors diving into the swimming pool children playing on the indoor play areas and guests enjoying the freshly prepared menus in the restaurants [Music] today elements for the large central kitchen are being delivered and assembled at around 3 million euros all the kitchen beverage and refrigeration appliances in the holiday park cost about as much as an apartment building unlike standard kitchens everything in this large-scale kitchen is made of stainless steel rather than just being bolted the kitchen elements are welded together the reason is welding joins them together much better than bolts or screws the screws would probably damage the metal more when they're tightened then the kitchen fitters meticulously grind all the weld seams now the men set the gigantic stove onto its base units and mount the partition onto the kitchen island in only three months this kitchen will be boiling frying and roasting cooking meals for five thousand visitors after about four hours the fitters have set up the huge kitchen range and welded the entire block together it's equipped with the very latest in kitchen technology here are the three installation openings for the deep fryers and here's a warming tray for the french fries there are two built-in wok plates with five kilowatts each next to that we have six induction plates and each of these hot plates has full power of 5 kilowatts it's the real deal another huge built-in appliance is delivered no modern commercial kitchen can be without one of these the shock freezer just installing this monster of an appliance is a very special challenge for the fitters it fits in here exactly to the centimeter we have to turn it around stand it on end and then lower it up right into the hole the utmost caution and precision is required here because this high-tech kitchen appliance isn't just extremely expensive it's also extremely heavy and in the kitchen there's no room for a crane to install the shock freezer the men have to rely on muscle power alone the first attempt fails the shock freezer is not completely in the hole its weight of one ton means that pushing this monstrous device into place simply won't work so the men try using some leverage will that be any more successful yes it will the shock freezer is finally in place very soon it will be in use for the preparation and storage of around 3000 meals a day i can push the trolley in here and cool the food on it down to minus 30 degrees in a very short time what usually happens is that the meals are cooked first and put into the shock freezer so they'll keep longer then we either put them in the deep freeze or they're regenerated in the combination steamer the main attraction in the mega holiday park will be the tropical water park around 1 800 bathers will be able to have fun splashing around on more than five different slides including one with a trap door a parallel slide for racing and two tire slides and apart from that there will also be the longest white water ride of any of the chain's holiday parks in germany three months before opening however not a single one of these slides is finished on the one hand layering the network of pipes is a logistical nightmare for the construction team on the other they also have to assemble the heavy slide components at a height of up to 15 meters and this has to be inch perfect you could let it go back there low the chain slowly a very special highlight is the crater slide which has a 15 meter high and a 12 meter wide crater made of steel its location here in the snowy algoy region presents an extra special challenge for the construction team the thing about this slide is that it's a similar steel construction to the one used for building production holes so in this area the snow load has to be calculated and taken into account as well the enormous steel frame of this crater slide alone weighs 45 tons and that's the reason why it was cast in a 60 centimeter thick reinforced concrete foundation [Music] now the fitters begin to attach the slide components to the steel frame they're made of glass fiber reinforced plastic or grp for short grp is also known colloquially as fiberglass so that no one gets hurt when they're sliding the men now laminate the joints between the components with fiberglass matting and polyester resin after that the crater slide surfaces are smoothed out carefully with a special polish [Music] the men are under enormous time pressure this is mainly due to the extreme heat it's mid-summer and during the day the temperature is over 30 degrees celsius as a result important work on the slides can only be done in the evenings the problem in this heat is that when this top coat layer comes into contact with direct sunlight the surface won't harden this material contains paraffin and if it heats up too quickly it rises to the top too fast and becomes sticky and then you can't work it with the machines but once the material has dried its maintenance and care is very easy in daily use later if a small piece that people can cut themselves on flakes off somewhere that area has to be sanded down repaired and a new top coat applied and polished and then it's all smooth again mike herclotz and his colleagues are now going to fit the plastic elements onto the crater slides steel frame but there's a problem with the very first element it doesn't fit a chain hoist is brought in to help here using this lever i can close this gap you see here really easily and put it into the position that's why these supports down here haven't been cast yet we do that right at the end when the entire body's been installed the chain hoist can move weights of up to seven tons the crater slide consists of over 200 individual parts and costs 800 000 euros but for that price it has a service lifetime of around 20 years still three months to go until the vacation park opens the front side of the main building is to be given a canopy roof in the shape of a wave [Music] but before that can be erected the windows of the exterior facade have to be put in first with the help of vacuum pads the fitters hoist the heavy triple glazed safety glass windows into the openings by crane and screw them tightly into place now carpenter ahimzinga and his team can begin constructing the canopy roof to create the very special wave shape the carpenter first needs so-called glue laminated timbers these are the beams for the roof structure but the very first beam proves to be a problem the giant three-ton component doesn't fit onto its mounting plate and this at a height of 11 meters let it down a bit so i can get behind it the metal plate is welded on and it wasn't like that on the plan that means the beam has to be at an angle to fit flush onto here and it's got to be flush otherwise it won't have the right length he decides for the quick solution with a chainsaw problem solved now the team can fit the beam properly [Music] the next canopy element is even more difficult to mount this is because the carpenter now wants to attach three posts to the glue lamp beam and put the whole thing up in one piece [Music] as the base the assembly workers then place a steel frame onto a concrete foundation plate before this component is set up even the experienced carpenter is a little nervous this is outstanding when you put it up you never know where the forces are going to act we can attach it at that side and at that side and suddenly it just hangs all crooked and that's kind of the problem it might just rotate a bit or something i don't know or do something we can't control and that's what makes it so dangerous the entire element weighs 5 tons the mobile crane can lift up to 14 tons the posts have been secured with wooden planks so they can't move and now the most difficult part the posts have to fit precisely onto the base frame and that takes that's time the beam isn't hanging straight and we can't just put it down again because this whole thing weighs five or six tons so the team uses a second crane so they'll be able to adjust the angle more precisely after two hours the first element is finally standing there are five more of these constructions that have to be erected aligned and secured and then a steel sheet is put up which is also the supporting structure for the roof insulation and then a flat roof ceiling goes on top of the whole thing just under three months until the holiday park's opening date it's still hard to believe that the first guests will soon be arriving for their vacation site manager dim hamilton and park manager christoph moot check up on how the work is progressing in the various areas and on where the hold-ups are their biggest headache is the white water ride at 165 meters it will be the holiday park chain's largest in germany the slide has already been cast but the entire grp coating is still missing to apply this coating the concrete must first be completely dry and that takes time the construction company wanted to start working on one or two sections but then we realized that's too slow we pressed them to do several sections of the shell at a time and that way we managed to cut several weeks from the construction time when it's finished 3 000 cubic meters of water will shoot down here every hour [Music] over in the main building problem number two is waiting for manager christophe moot and site manager tim hemington the complicated natural stone tiling work for the swimming pool the pool has to be finished in time for the opening we have to take water samples here and the pool has to be cleaned as you can see the floor is almost finished but the walls still have to be done so that remains a really tense issue for us because the elaborate tiling work is only progressing very slowly these are not like normal tiles because natural stones have an organic shape they're not always the same thickness but we still have to lay them evenly and it all has to look the same like also eleven thousand square meters of floor space has to be covered with natural stone from brazil and all the floors in the swimming pools still have to be laid too and these floors are to give the water a greenish shimmer just like it has in the tropics the construction of this new vacation park will cost the gigantic sum of 350 million euros three million euros alone have been invested in the canteen kitchen and it's now being equipped chef fritz steinhauser is the master of the new high-tech kitchen these are the appliances that enable you to prepare really large quantities here we've got a very cooking center very ingenious invention you can do everything with this roasting boiling cooking overnight low temperature cooking which is simply more gentle on the food here we've got different programs brazing boiling overnight stewing overnight cooking in addition there are two built-in wok pans and six induction hot plates there are only six weeks to go until the opening to ensure this vacationer's paradise is completed on schedule there are now some 1100 workers on the construction site today the crater slide is getting a roof over its head it's 13 meters wide and weighs an enormous 15 tons for the crane this means a serious upgrade [Music] those are all the counterweights otherwise it'll tilt forwards the crane's dead weight is 60 tons and when we put the ballast on it weighs 72 tons to install the roof extra thick chains are needed as well as all the counterweights on the roof itself there are eight fixation points where the team will attach the crane's chains but this is a very delicate maneuver because the roof has no main beam and is therefore not stable when it comes to lifting the difficulty is to spread the load evenly so the roof can't break either upwards like this or downwards that's why it's taking some time for us to get the right balance you can see yourself that it's already heavy really heavy is also the load the roof will have to withstand in the winter months the problem is that we have a lot of snow here because of this supporting structure the snow would stay in here and would press down on the roof so later this entire roof will have a long span metal deck over the top of it to catch all of the snow the work begins the men now remove the assembly supports we'll have to lengthen the chains now foreman mike hairclots mustn't make any mistakes the 15-ton roof can't be put down again no way back now it's got to go up no matter how the crane raises the roof if only one of the chains has the wrong load on it the roof will break the first stage is successful using a rope mike hairclutz tries to guide the 15-ton roof towards the crater slide site but the roof's enormous weight isn't the only difficulty due to the wind and the structure itself it's starting to turn inwards so with the ropes we're trying to counter that here and over there and get it exactly above the slide so that we can position it but that doesn't go as planned the angle is not right like this there's no way the men can lower the roof down mike haircloths however remains optimistic we'll just have to make the best of it i always say because there are always problems when you're assembling things you just need solutions and you need them fast because all this equipment costs money we've got to carry on and see that we get the whole thing done by this evening because we've only got the crane for today using grinders the fitters cut pieces of the roof off in order to solve the problem but after two more hours it's still not in place we'll have to use smaller elements smaller bolts to see if we can secure the roof that way so we can lower it down a little project [Applause] and that will allow us to add the larger components step by step because we can't get the roof to fit 100 due to the angle we'll just secure it first using smaller bolts and gradually move up to the size that actually belongs in there so we can lower the roof forwards into the right position with the chain hoist and various bolts the team finally managed to set the roof down into place only five more weeks until the opening of the new vacation park in the algoy this particular vacation park chain is famous for its many exotic plants and they are now being brought in most of the 60 large trees and palms come from southeast asia after spending a year's quarantine in rotterdam they can now be planted in the park the father of all this exotic vegetation is biologist john hankins all the trees that are brought here have been specially selected the youngest of all these trees are 35 years old and the oldest of those in here is 450 years old to plant the trees and palms the men use a machine known as a spider crane it stands on protective tiles to prevent any damage to the new screed floor the crane can extend its boom eight meters horizontally and has a vertical range of 15 meters the tree being planted here is a ficus racemosa that weighs 3.5 tons and is around 10 meters high it's also about 450 years old all in all the gardeners use about 2 500 cubic meters of soil for planting the trees and palms but this isn't soil that comes from a garden center it's been specially manufactured just for these plants they live in the in their natural habitat they live together with microorganisms and without these microorganisms the tree can't survive they really need them i grew microorganisms in the lab and injected them into the soil again so that the tree can grow new roots as quickly as possible the biologist can increase the number of microorganisms growing in the test tube by inspecting the soil the leaves and the bark jean hankins can always tell how his plants are doing i can smell it they have a certain aroma and i can smell whether the microorganisms in soil are good with the tree over there it was difficult we'll have to do it again but this one here is good so now these exotic plants can take a little time to get used to their new environment only four more weeks until the opening the first exclusive houses are now finished from 78 to 200 square meters in size each of these luxury holiday homes can accommodate between 4 and 12 guests site manager tim hemington and architect niels menger are on their way to the final inspection [Music] there are still a few marks on the wall not from fear and i can't tell what it is a drill hole and here there's a curtain missing structurally these vacation homes are no different from conventional residential houses but in the bathroom there's a very special highlight waiting for the guests a private sauna the cost of the house per square meter is 2 000 euros an assignment of this magnitude is not an everyday task for the architect [Music] when you think of that number 250 that's 250 terrorist or detached houses and to get that many finished in that amount of time was difficult in four weeks time the first holiday residents will be moving in here just two more weeks until the park opens on the agenda today is the technical inspection of the slides but the crater slide still hasn't been finished in the initial plan we were scheduled to finish today however the start of construction was delayed so we could only begin assembling the slide much later than we'd intended unfortunately the finishing date hasn't been delayed as much as the beginning was so we're still lagging behind here however benjamin sperlich is already convinced that the crater slide will be a great success so we believe that in larger slide concepts these standard slides no more than just a tube are no longer the main focus okay you have them but you really want to attract people and you can only do that with spectacular slides like the one you see here [Music] from the inspection authority turf tarinia has arrived to inspect the crater site but it's not finished yet the expert decides to take a closer look anyway seeing as he's here already this means the contractors can fix any existing defects and will be much better prepared for the actual final inspection which will of course have to be rescheduled these are the so-called start bars that help you launch better in your tire on this flat area here so we have to make sure that there isn't anything on here or on these surfaces with sharp edges where people could perhaps injure their hands right at the beginning of the ride the slides constructors are eager to hear whether the technical expert has any objections are there any problems no cleanliness is currently the problem exactly cleanliness is the problem at the moment but it's still not quite finished so i'm still quite relaxed about that so that's the right size next he meticulously checks every joint between each slide section techniques have improved so much now that the guys who build the slides do a really good job and that's good for us too of course because we don't actually want to find any defects the search for possible defects takes time after all the crater slide is 100 meters long so here we have some small irregularities it's just some paint splashes from this top coat material but they can be sharp sometimes so the fitters just need to sand over them again sales rep benjamin sperlich quickly removes the paint splashes himself using a carpet knife the tiff inspector is satisfied a kind of final finish comes along indirectly anyway when the slides cleaned and polished this here has been remedied the pipe has a diameter of three meters so that up to three bathers at a time can slide through here on one tire [Music] just before the slide enters the crater hall it forms a steep gradient to speed up the ride to check for faults here tooth expert sasha alkavitz has to abseil down the technical expert discovers further defects on the unfinished slide here for example you can see that this joint hasn't been filled it's still very sharp edged and you can see glass fiber sticking out all over like here for example that's obviously not been finished and really needs to be done properly yeah it's of course a major safety defect which is then documented in detail i would like to check this again at a later date to make sure it's safe for bathers to use the slide constructors have only two more weeks to fix all the defects so they've certainly got plenty to do before the final tooth safety inspection there were joints that still have to be filled so the biggest problem we have right now is what we see here there's the hole we have to close up and when that's done we're more or less finished for the mega vacation park the countdown has begun it's only a few more days until the first guests move into the holiday homes and start their vacation the pressure is on all over the park there are people working scrubbing and cleaning the slide constructors are closing the hole in the crater slide and in the main building the final natural stone tiles are being grouted the underwater aquarium is finally introduced to its new aquatic inhabitants and the holiday homes are being cleaned and polished to impress their first inhabitants the park operators are expecting around 1 million guests per year then the big day arrives after almost two years in the making the center park's chain finally opens the doors on its biggest facility in germany so far the vacation park has been fully booked for months the first guests begin to explore the almost 20 000 square meter main building with its eight air cushion foil roofs just six months earlier arches weighing several tons were installed here along with 8 000 square meters of special foil in the main building exotic plants from all around the world create a pleasant indoor climate and conjure up a holiday atmosphere it's only four months since the plants were brought in here and provided with almost 2 500 cubic meters of special soil where almost two years ago there was a forest and a few abandoned military bunkers now there's a gigantic vacation park covering a total area of 184 hectares a total of 1 000 holiday homes were built on the site in four different categories to accommodate approximately five thousand guests [Music] these houses were built on a very tight construction schedule of only six months underneath the main building's new canopy roof visitors can now spend time in the beer garden just relaxing far less relaxing on the other hand was the installation of this canopy roof design three months earlier the 5-ton element proved to be an enormous challenge for the construction workers 200 meters away from the main building the park's exclusive spa facilities have been constructed covering 2 400 square meters here the visitors can recuperate in a variety of steam baths and saunas or simply swim and relax in one of the pools if you're looking for action rather than relaxation then the best advice is to head for the main building the market dome there you'll find six thousand six hundred square meters of tropical style water park fun and adventure with five spectacular water slides and yet only six weeks before construction workers were struggling to get the 15-ton roof onto the crater slide and thousands of natural stone tiles were delicately being laid with great precision in the swimming pools after their fun in the water park the visitors can get a bite to eat in one of the market dome's six restaurants almost all of the up to three thousand meals a day are prepared in the new canteen kitchen three months earlier cooking was out of the question fitters were still struggling to get the super heavy shock freezer into place after two years of intense construction work the new holiday park of superlatives is finally open the next few years will show whether the 350 million euro investment has been worthwhile

Channel: WELT Documentary

Views: 501,787

Keywords: full documentary, full documentaries, hd documentary, hd documentaries, free documentary, welt documentary, welt documentaries, full length documentaries, documentary film, top documentaries, reports, factual film, center parcs, center parcs allgäu, construction work, construction worker, plumbers, technicians, vacation, vacation deluxe, holiday, holiday park, creation, germany, algäu, slide, water slide

Id: rZ5pcfnQ61Q

Length: 47min 17sec (2837 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 15 2020