The Berlin Airport

Back in 2010 in Berlin....there were high expectations that the new Berlin-Brandenburg Airport....would open, after years of construction.

Well....it didn't.  Thousands of issues remained from screwed-up planning and construction requirements.

We are now four years into the phase two of the project....fixing the screw-ups.  This week....they proudly announced that they now have four percent of the airport up and ready to run.  I'm not sure why they had to make this announcement, and the political gain from such a comical statement. Then, I kinda remembered....these are Germans, and they measure practically everything.  So, maybe it's a positive....having four-percent of the airport up and running.  Then you kinda think on it.....this might only mean that the stairways and escalators work, and maybe all of the women's toilets are functional.

What the news media typically says....is that it'll all be up and running by the end of 2016.  Political folks now avoid the topic.  You'd never hear the Berlin mayor talk on the subject.....it tends to make them all look foolish.

I used to work for an officer who had a vast set of metrics for just about everything.  On any given day.....he'd want a status on such-and-such project, and you'd have to respond with a percentage.  I kinda felt silly....saying we are at eighty-eight percent capacity today....and two days later the same question would be asked and I'd have to note that we went down to eight-two percent.  This would drive the boss mad....asking how we did this and how we were going to recover this lost six-percent.  I'd generally say I'd need a day or two.....and by then....we were back up to eighty-eight....that would make him happy, but demanding we push for one-hundred percent next month.

Is there a listing for the items of four-percent ready?  I've looked over German papers and have yet to find any list.  I suspect....it's just one certain thing....like the ramp areas totally functional or the runway itself.  When you consider an airport....there's likely 250,000 running pieces and parts.....so it's not a simple tasking.

How many Germans follow the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport saga?  I'd say roughly twenty percent know there's massive issues.  The rest?  At least half the German public probably aren't even aware of some new massive airport being built in Berlin.  As bad as some Americans are over grasping their national situations.....it's just as bad in Germany.

So, this brings me to this concluding topic....who is the guy who keeps the listing?  Who monitors things and concludes you are at the four-percent or six-percent point?  Does he stay up at night....worrying about a slide down on the scale?  Is there a eight volume binder series to cover the four-percent achievement?  Will this guy retire once he gets to one-hundred percent?

When you hear about the BER airport saga.....at least you will grasp some of the issues over the status.  It's a work in progress....as Germans would say.