USAG BAVARIA – HOHENFELS, Germany – Members of the U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria – Hohenfels community gathered at the community’s sewage treatment site Aug. 12, 2026 to dedicate and celebrate the new building.
Hidden away in a small hollow, Hohenfels’ sewage treatment facilities go about their work unnoticed.
A construction crane held a large green crown above the newly completed roof as part of a Hebefest (or “topping out” ceremony). Below stood a host of members of the Directorate of Public Works, other members of the garrison workforce, community partners and contractors.
“As soon as a roof is placed on a totally new building, you’re doing the ceremony, and you’re thanking God nobody got hurt, the weather was fine, stuff like that,” said Claudia Rabhansl, the lead for the construction project.
The Directorate of Public Works is performing a full repair on the sewage treatment plant, accomplishing the renovation while the plant is in full operation.
“Normally the easier way would be to stop operation, do all the repair, and then start operations again,” Rabhansl said. “But obviously, since we are in full training mode, and Hohenfels will not stand still for two years or three years, we need to do it in full operation.
“We have the advantage that the essential things are redundant,” she added. “We can switch off one basin and have a second one, and we can switch off one pump and have a second one.”
As facilities age, they need replacing. Rabhansl clarified that wastewater facilities in particular, because of the processes taking place therein, require a higher replacement tempo than many other facilities on an Army post.
“To clean the water, you have bacteria do their job,” she said. “The wastewater itself is super aggressive, so the lifespan of everything that comes into touch with the wastewater and the process of cleaning the water is way shorter than for a normal building. So the basins, they need smaller repair work every 15 years and larger repair work now.”
The building, newly roofed and dedicated, once finished, will serve as the operations and personnel facility, including lockers, restrooms, showers and the like. When it opens and the facility personnel begin occupying it, renovations may take place on the other buildings as well.
“It’s incredibly important,” Rabhansl said, “one of the most important facilities we have on post.”