The aim of the Operating Company Ltd is to optimise the use of the bridges with all their components and functions for the people of Frankfurt, Germany and Europe and to maintain them in excellent condition

The Operating Company Ltd has several target groups: firstly, the residents and tradespeople on the bridges as well as the citizens of the city of Frankfurt; secondly, all people in Europe and worldwide, for whom the bridges represent a showcase for innovation and a blueprint for the city of the future and who share in the knowledge gained on the Frankfurt Bridges through joint scientific research in their countries. And last but not least, the bridge owners are also a target group, for whom the bridges only become their property after a few years and for whom it is all the more important that the bridges gain and not lose value over the years through excellent maintenance.

A non-profit Operating Company Ltd. takes over the operational tasks as soon as the non-profit Construction Company Ltd has completed a construction phase

The areas of responsibility of the Operating Company Ltd are derived from the areas of concept planning for the Frankfurt Bridges:

Buildings: letting, maintenance, residents' concerns
Bridges and accesses: interface coordination with the City of Frankfurt as bridge body owner, maintenance coordination with the city for bridge body, piers, lifts and stairs, safety, lighting and fire protection
Lines and supply centres: Maintenance interface management with Rhein Main Netzdiensten, coordination of charges with Mainova and SEF as well as line tenants, controlling of all processes in the supply centres
Bridge surface: green space management on the bridges, coordination with the Environment and Green Space Agency for planting along the bridges; maintenance of lighting, recreation areas and seating, canopies, etc.
Energy supply: Maintenance of the photovoltaic systems on the bridges, management of the H2 and battery storage landscape along the bridges
Water supply: Control of water collection, water extraction and water transmission through the ring main, control of storage in cisterns and infiltration reservoirs as well as management of the bathing lake.
Transport: vehicle maintenance, controlling the control centres for autonomous driving, coordination with VGF and RMV
Waste disposal: Management of the maintenance of the Renomat service and the pneumatic waste disposal pipes as well as coordination with FES, maintenance of the collection machine roundels
Art and culture: management of the music programme on the bridges, stage performances and hobby pop-ups
Labour and social affairs: management of the operating kiosks, unemployment columns and freelancers, management of training programmes in the commercial sector, organisation of accommodation and work opportunities for eligible groups of people (members of boarding school students on the bridges, social workers, homeless people, etc.).

Accordingly, the staff of the Frankfurt Bridges Operating Company Ltd must consist to a large extent of highly qualified employees in order to be able to fulfil this variety of challenging tasks.

The non-profit Operating Company Ltd is a facility management and controlling centre in one

In the bridge quarters, the Operating Company Ltd fulfils similar tasks to a city administration with the major difference that it

does not fulfil any sovereign tasks, but must comply with the regulations and laws of the city
assumes the tasks of property management (rental, maintenance, facility management) - also for the infrastructure and (green) areas of the bridges, including management via controlling centres
has to fulfil an innovation mission together with research and science from all over Europe.

1. buildings (II): When letting commercial space, the Operating Company Ltd also applies allocation guidelines that correspond to the non-profit purposes of the company‘s shareholder agreement

2. letting of commercial space - incl. space for education, art, inclusion and sport

The Operating Company Ltd ensures that all areas are rented out in accordance with the charitable purposes: Service providers and restaurants must commit to offering the further education programme on the Frankfurt Bridges for their employees when renting space; catering establishments must join the take-away crockery system and may only use products from organic farming (requirements that also apply to large franchise chains).

Another example: The market halls with loft flair are not only intended for vendors of regional produce, but citizens without a business can also rent space there on certain days or for a few hours, e.g. to sell fruit from their garden (similar to a sales licence at a flea market stall). The Operating Company therefore rents such space to an operator who organises the staffing of the market stalls. The operator works like a franchisee who is bound to certain price structures and quality standards.

Even in special neighbourhoods, letting is not arbitrary, but theme-based: a catering space in Little Italy, for example, is only let to an organic restaurant - but not to just any restaurant, but one that focuses on Italian cuisine.

1. buildings (III): For the maintenance of the buildings on the bridges, the Operating Company Ltd always uses both the craftsmen of the Master Craftsmen's Academy and the regional craftsmen of the surrounding area

Many of the buildings on the bridges have a sophisticated artistic design and are often built using innovative, sustainable construction methods. This makes the maintenance of numerous trades a particular challenge.

The Operating Company Ltd. can rely on the craftsmen from the Master Craftsmen's Academy on the bridges, among others, for the craftsmanship.

For innovative construction methods, co-operation with research units (e.g. with the Institute for Innovative Construction or the Fraunhofer IBP, etc.) is a priority.

2. bridges and entrances: The bridge body belongs to the City of Frankfurt, so it is also responsible for the maintenance and care of the pillars and the undersides of the body

- but the entrances and lifts belong to the bridge owners and are managed by the Operating Company Ltd

The responsibility of the Operating Company is limited to being responsible for the operation of all units located on the bridges - be it buildings, vehicles, events or other elements. It is also responsible for everything on the surface of the bridges, be it the greenery, the lighting, the underfloor irrigation system or the light windows with walk-on glass that illuminate the space under the bridges.

The Operating Company is also responsible for the maintenance, servicing and cleaning of all the double lifts and stairs leading to the bridges. The maintenance and cleaning teams, which are constantly on the move on the bridges, use the network of operator kiosks, which are distributed approximately every 500 metres to 1000 metres on the bridges and where those responsible for maintenance, servicing and care not only have access to a small equipment and storage room, but can also have drinks at canteen prices, among other things, during their work breaks.

2. bridges and access points: The Operating Company Ltd. is also responsible for the maintenance and cleaning of the building bridges and viewing platforms or "bridge balconies"

What the Operating Company cannot do is look after the large bridges, i.e. over the Main or the tracks of the main railway station. This is the responsibility of the city, the shipping authority and Deutsche Bahn. The maintenance of the underside of the bridge body, the pillars or the cables that run through or under the bridge body is also the responsibility of the city, as these parts of Frankfurt's bridges are already part of the city's infrastructure, which becomes the property and therefore also the responsibility of the city after completion. Only the artistic design, e.g. on the pillars or undersides of the bridge, is the responsibility of the Operating Company in consultation with the City of Frankfurt, as this is primarily part of the residents' management, which is the responsibility of the Operating Company: The residents are the key decision-makers when it comes to the design, lighting and utilisation functions of the bridge corpus, as it takes place right under their noses. For the same reason, the Operating Company also looks after the building bridges, viewing platforms and bridge balconies, as these can only ever be maintained, designed or planted in line with the needs of local residents.

3. bridge surface: The Operating Company Ltd is responsible for all greening on and around the bridges

In addition to maintaining and letting the buildings, the Operating Company's most important task is to look after the 1 million square metres of green space on the bridges as well as the trees and green areas along the bridges - the latter being carried out in cooperation with the City of Frankfurt's Parks and Environment Department. As there are no bedding concepts with alternating planting on and along the bridges and as the focus is exclusively on ground-based façade greening, the main focus is on maintenance care and only occasionally on (replacement) planting. Maintenance includes not only the green spaces with a public character, but also garden maintenance in the gardens of the bridge houses, as their extraordinarily beautiful appearance serves tourist purposes and must therefore always be maintained. However, bridge residents with green fingers and a desire for special planting can also take care of the garden maintenance themselves if they wish. In addition, the Operating Company has specialised staff who maintain and care for the infrastructure for species conservation and the promotion of stepping stone biotopes (nesting sites, bird baths, ecological connectivity structures such as wildlife corridors and green bridges, etc.).

3. bridge surface: The non-profit Operating Company Ltd carries out research projects and innovative concepts in cooperation with scientific institutes

Close cooperation with science and research has been an integral part of the planning and construction phase of the Frankfurt Bridges since their construction and initial planting. The Operating Company continues this co-operation during the operating phase. It is important that the scientific staff of the Frankfurt Bridges are also available for the transfer of expertise for other construction projects in Germany, Europe and worldwide and that findings from the Frankfurt Bridges are also implemented in other projects as part of consultancy assignments. This can include planting adapted to climate change as well as innovative substrate concepts for green roofs, species-promoting construction methods, selection breeding of pest-resistant plant species, urban or regional supply of exotic fruits from geothermally heated bridge greenhouses and much more. The Frankfurt Bridges act as a living research laboratory for cities in climatically comparable regions with comparable flora and fauna for their green space and environmental agencies.

5. energy supply: The Operating Company Ltd. gGmbH monitors the decentralised energy generation on and under the bridges

All eligible areas on the Frankfurt Bridges are equipped with photovoltaic and solar technology. The Operating Company Ltd. ensures the maintenance of this decentralised generation through PVT systems. At the same time, it controls the flow of energy to decentralised consumers on the bridges. I In the controlling stations of the largest supply centres, the balancing of energy surpluses or shortfalls with the municipal energy supply is also managed. The initial aim is to equalise between bridge districts - balancing with systems outside the Frankfurt Bridges only follows in a second step if necessary. The same applies to the thermal coupling of heat from solar technology with the underground geothermal system under or along the Frankfurt Bridges: This interface is monitored at controlling stations in the supply centres.

4. lines and supply centres: The large municipal supply lines in and under the bridge corpus belong to the city - but the Operating Company Ltd must manage the interface to them as well as the fine distribution on the bridge

5. energy supply: However, the maintenance obligation of the Operating Company Ltd. does not extend to energy infrastructure that is not located on or on the bridges, but on municipal territory or with third-party providers

Any surplus energy generated on Frankfurt's bridges is made available to consumers in the city, either on a decentralised basis, such as at the "filling stations" for electric cars integrated into the bridge pillars, or as a feed-in to the municipal grid at certain transfer points. A special case, however, is the storage of the surplus energy generated on the bridges in underground storage facilities: These are usually located under areas belonging to associations or farmers and not to the city, so that the management of the H2 and battery storage landscape should actually be assigned to the Operating Company Ltd.. However, if the city of Frankfurt itself operates such an underground storage landscape close to the city by this time, it makes more sense to make the management of the bridge storage facilities both the property and the responsibility of the city. The same applies to the geothermal systems under the bridges: Once the bridges have been completed, they too should become the property of the city, which also owns the bridge corpus. This is particularly appropriate because many probe fields are located under road surfaces and the waste heat from other decentralised heat sources should also be integrated into the system, such as waste heat from data centres or the sewage system.

6. water supply: The Operating Company Ltd. is responsible for controlling the water collection and forwarding through the ring main as well as the intermediate storage in the cisterns under the bridges

However, as the collected and stored water is not only used to supply the greenery on the bridges, but above all to supply the urban greenery in Frankfurt with water during dry periods, the infiltration areas should be managed by the City of Frankfurt. The same applies to the management of the bathing lake, where only a small part of the water storage takes place, but which has an extremely high recreational value for the entire population of Frankfurt.

8. disposal: The Operating Company is responsible for the Renomat system, which will become the nucleus for a 100% sustainable packaging world

During the construction of the Frankfurt Bridges, the Operating Company Ltd. already has to enter into cooperation agreements with manufacturers who are prepared to join the sustainable packaging system with packaging made of unbreakable lightweight glass, thin enamelled steel and pure PE plastic. The prerequisite for this is that the Operating Company Ltd. and FES (the municipal waste disposal company in Frankfurt) jointly develop a process by which the renomats are collected, taken to a special centre of the municipal waste disposal company for cleaning or incineration of the packaging and returned to the bridges in a cleaned state. The Operating Company Ltd. must also ensure efficient logistics for returning the reusable containers to the manufacturers so that they can refill them. Similar to online ordering, the logistics can be organised efficiently if enough manufacturers have joined the system so that the transport routes cover more and more manufacturers.

Benjamin Miller & J.Spertus semanticscholar.org

9. art and culture: the Operating Company Ltd. organises the occupancy of the music pavilions, stages and hobby pop-ups

The music pavilions have a constantly changing programme, so the Operating Company Ltd. has to build up a network of artists and agencies in order to organise such a large number of relatively short concerts. To make matters worse, the programme is also dominated by music from other cultural backgrounds, which means that musicians from other countries are constantly invited to visit and have to be accommodated. The Operating Company Ltd. organises this and also finances it with subsidies, as the extremely low admission costs mean that the cooperation partners are often unable to cover the costs in full. The same applies to stage performances, many of which are from other countries, so that invitations and accommodation on the bridges have to be organised by the Operating Company Ltd.. Occupying the hobby pop-ups is somewhat more long-term, but just as challenging: The Operating Company Ltd. has to bring together clubs, interested people or institutions or businesses that can contribute to a hobby and work with them to create and implement a programme for the six months or year in which the topic is dealt with in the hobby pop-up.

10. labour and social affairs: the parent company's foundation charter aims to ensure that the Frankfurt Bridges are also a showcase for innovation in terms of social and legal aspects - which must be organised by the Operating Company Ltd.

The Operating Company Ltd. is responsible for the management of around 60 kiosks, which are distributed across the bridges and function like a network: They are staffed 24/7 in four shifts of 6 hours each, providing a reliable point of contact for bridge residents, tourists, children & young people, people with disabilities, etc. The network of "kiosk operators" is staffed by freelancers, who are recruited by the Operating Company Ltd. mainly from local residents, pensioners, students or trainees and for whom part-time jobs are attractive. As the operator kiosks also have a café or bistro character, they also function as a meeting point for citizens and guests from other regions. On Frankfurt's bridges - similar to city centre squares in the Mediterranean region - a completely different social life is possible than in conventional new development areas. The operator kiosks are also a meeting point for the unemployed columns who work for the bridge gardeners, or for the vehicle attendants in the bridge personnel transport vehicles, for example, who travel in the vehicles as helpers and contacts in the first years of autonomous transport on the bridges. The Operating Company Ltd. controls the network's joint duty rota and the distribution of tasks for all these activities.

10. labour and social affairs: innovative training programmes on the bridges are the responsibility of the Operating Company Ltd, as is the social accommodation of special groups of people

People who work on the bridges should be entitled to one and a half days of further training on the bridges, either in companies specialising in their field (e.g. chefs who want to learn other cuisines in other restaurants) or in related fields (e.g. chefs who want to learn more about nutritional science or photography of dishes, etc.). These further training programmes are organised and coordinated by the Operating Company Ltd. and are also financed with a certain subsidy budget. Another task of the Operating Company Ltd. is to organise accommodation for authorised groups of people, e.g. street workers in the immediate vicinity of youth centres or parents of boarding school students who attend the Master Academy for Arts and Crafts, the floating IT college or the music master school on the bridges at a young age. The Operating Company Ltd. must also look after the children's parents and - similar to a relocation or recruitment company - provide them with work and accommodation in Frankfurt or preferably on the bridges so that they can live near their children if they wish.

10. labour and social affairs: The Operating Company Ltd. is also responsible for the occupancy and organisation of the care of shelters for the homeless or women's refuges, etc.

Frankfurt's bridges are home to numerous social facilities whose operation must be ensured: Although the Operating Company Ltd. cannot itself manage shelters for the homeless, children's arks, women's shelters, youth centres, advice centres, etc., it is responsible for occupying the buildings intended for this purpose, coordinating with the organisations or associations or municipal units that manage these social activities, and ensuring that all the social services envisaged in the planning are actually offered in full on the bridges. It also ensures that an exchange of experience takes place with other cities and municipalities in Germany and Europe about which concepts are particularly successful and have potential for imitation. In this respect, the "Art, Culture and Social Affairs" area on Frankfurt's bridges is also a showcase for innovation.

The Operating Company Ltd. is primarily responsible for managing and controlling the operating processes and for cooperating with the scientific community

The Operating Company Ltd. represents the network that connects all areas of Frankfurt's bridges and ensures their smooth interaction - analogous to the extremely interdisciplinary planning approach that will have to permeate urban planning processes much more than in the past. The charitable purpose is at the centre of all activities of the Operating Company Ltd. gGmbH. This goes hand in hand with highly professional specialised personnel who are extremely well trained in the management and control of the various areas: This is the only way to competently and efficiently award contracts for maintenance, servicing or repairs. In addition, the above-average qualifications of the Operating Company Ltd.'s employees are a guarantee that interaction with research and science will lead to innovation results that represent important steps for Germany, Europe and the world on the way to the humane and sustainable city of the future.